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UNIVERSAL  PROSPERITY 

HOW  TO  ATTAIN  IT  AS  A  PEOPLE 
BY 

EDWARD  WENNING 


Second  Edition — Revised 


PRESENTING  "A  FEASIBLE,  CONCRETE,  INDUSTRIAL  PLAN  FOR 
IMMEDIATE  INAUGURATION,  PRACTICALLY  ADAPTABLE  TO 
THE  CONDITIONS  OF  TO-DAY  \  WHOSE  OPERATIONS  WILL 
GRADUALLY  BRING  ABOUT  PERMANENT  MATERIAL  .PROS- 
PERITY, THE  RAPID  SOLUTION  OF  THE  INDUSTRIAl'eVILS, 
AND    RESULT,  ULTIMATELY,  IN  UNIVERSAL  SOCIAL  ORDER  " 


* 


CINCINNATI 

THE  INDUSTRIAL  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

(pub.  dept.  of  thb  u.  s.  industrial  socibty)  ., 

53  West  Ninth  Street 


SOL  Z3 


Copyright,  1894  and  1895, 
By  EDWARD  WENNING 


0* 

VI 

i 

I 
N^  CONTENTS 


PAGE 

1.  Elements  of  Practicality 9 

2.  The  Dominating  Law  of  Economy 22 

3.  Interest 25 

4.  Lack  of    Balance   between    Production  and 

Consumption 36 

5.  The  Plan  —  by  Way  of  Illustration 55 

6.  Capital  and  Circulating  Medium 60 

7.  The  Plan  —  in  Fact 67 

8.  "  Better  than  Money  " 89 

9.  Per  Capita —  Real  and  Fictitious 97 

10.  Labor  and  Wage  Question 100 

11.  Measures  of  Safety  and  Evolution 104 

12.  Conclusion no 


PREFACE 

IT  should  be  remembered  that  there  are,  as 
it  were,  two  characters  to  each  person  — 
the  superficial  or  temporary,  and  the  funda- 
mental. The  superficial  is  the  one  nearly 
always  in  evidence,  the  fundamental  the  one 
mostly  held  in  abeyance. 

With  eye  to  the  superficial,  there  pass  before 
us  the  Rich,  the  Poor ;  the  Wise,  the  Ignorant ; 
the  Republican,  the  Democrat,  the  Populist, 
the  Socialist,  the  Nationalist,  the  Single-taxer, 
the  Prohibitionist ;  the  Landlord,  the  Cap- 
italist, the  Stock-broker,  the  Merchant,  the 
Manufacturer,  the  Working-man,  the  Tramp, 
the  Criminal,  the  Pauper,  etc. 

With  eye  to  the  fundamental,  we  see  "  Men 
and  Women  " —  children  of  one  God,  souls  of 
one  common  origin. 

We  wear  our  superficial  character  with  all 
the  dis- grace  it  is  possible,  fighting  and  raging 
as  if  we  were  so  many  antagonistic  elements, 
jostling  and  trampling  upon  one  another  in 
one  continual  warfare  of  names,  fictions,  shad- 
ows, and  misunderstandings,  which  issue  from 
merely  the  "  masks  "  we  wear.  How  well  we 
play  the  hideous  part !  Like  the  simple,  sweet 
child,  who  in  sport  puts  on  a  brutal  "false 
face,"  and  at  once  is  transmuted  into  a  hid- 
eous little  fiend,  frightening  its  playmates  spite 


6  PREFACE 

of  their  knowledge  of  the  trick,  we  assume 
our  various  masks  and  become  "fools"  ;  wear 
them  so  oft  and  long,  and  go  through  the 
motions  and  antics  so  earnestly,  till  we  forget 
it  all  is  but  a  hideous  part,  and  automatically 
continue,  even  when  the  mask  is  laid  aside  a 
moment,  to  act  as  if  it  all  were  real. 

Do  our  endless  antagonisms  of  interest, 
names,  opinions,  prejudices,  and  social  con- 
ditions root  any  more  substantial  than  in  the 
"masks"  we  wear,  the  "parts"  we  play? 
Aren't  we  heart-sick  of  the  farce?  How  oft 
"  in  the  stilly  night  "  does  not  the  voice  of  the 
true  man  or  woman  within  our  hearts  whisper 
in  anguish,  "  Oh,  if  I  only  had  the  opportunity 
to  be  my  true  self  all  the  time!  " 

Hasn't  the  clock  struck  twelve?  Isn't  it 
time  to  unmask? 

Or  must  we  still  "  on  with  the  hideous 
dance "? 

This  little  book,  intensely  practical  as  is  its 
proposition,  points  out  a  harmless,  smooth 
way  in  which  we  can  unmask,  without  shock. 
Between  the  lines,  the  "still  small  voice," 
the  heart,  sick  with  fraud,  may  find  all  the 
poetry  necessary  to  give  it  hope  and  faith. 

The  book  is  addressed  not  only  to  business 
man  or  working-man  as  such ;  to  Democrat, 
Republican,  or  Populist  as  such  ;  to  Socialist, 
Reformer,  or  Neutral  as  such;  but  to  "  Men 
and  Women." 

The  Author. 


Note. — A  familiarity  with  the  philosophies  of  the 
future  state,  and  the  treatises  showing  the  logic  of 
past  periods,  is  in  a  degree  essential  to  a  thorough 
understanding  of  the  subject  of  this  book.  To  this 
end  the  reader  will  find  in  the  following  a  few  useful 
works  for  a  simple  course  of  collateral  reading : 

"  Fabian  Essays."  With  an  essay  on  the  Fabian 
Society  and  its  work  by  William  Clarke,  and  Intro- 
duction by  Edward  Bellamy.  Charles  E.  Brown  & 
Co.,  Boston.     Cloth,  75c. 

"  Looking  Backward."  Edward  Bellamy.  Hough- 
ton, Mifflin  &  Co.,  Cambridge,  Mass.  Paper,  50c.  ; 
cloth,  $1. 

"  Socialism  and  Social  Reform."  Professor  R.  T. 
Ely.    T.  Y.  Crowell  &  Co.,  New  York.    Cloth,  $1.50. 

"Wealth  against  Commonwealth."  Henry  D. 
Lloyd.      Harper  &  Bros.,  New  York.      Cloth,  $2.50. 

Some  small  works,  dealing  with  more  immediate 
questions,  are : 

"Our  Country's  Need."  Professor  Frank  Par- 
sons.    The  Arena  Pub.  Co.,  Boston.      Paper,  25c. 

"  The  Philosophy  of  Mutualism."  Professor  Frank 
Parsons.     The  Arena  Pub.  Co.      Paper,  10c. 

"  Ten  Men  of  Money  Island."  S.  F.  Norton,  544 
Ogden  Avenue,  Chicago,  111.      Paper,  10c. 

"  Seven  Financial  Conspiracies. "  Emery  &  Emery, 
Lansing,  Mich.      Paper,  10c. 

"  Stockwell's  Bad  Boy."  Nonconformist  Pub.  Co., 
Indianapolis.      Paper,  10c. 

"  The  Cause  of  Financial  Panics."  J.  W.  Bennett, 
in  Arena,  March,  1894.' 

"  A  Revolutionary  Railway  Company."  Albert 
Griffin,  in  Arena,  May,  1894. 


UNIVERSAL  PROSPERITY 


ELEMENTS   OF    PRACTICALITY 

TO  expound  a  philosophy,  and  to  present 
a  practical  method  of  putting  a  philos- 
ophy into  immediate  practice,  are  two  differ- 
ent things.  The  latter  is  the  specific  object 
before  us.  It  is  the  endeavor,  namely,  to  pre- 
sent the  precise  modus  operandi  by  means  of 
which  we  can  ultimately  remedy  the  entire 
category  of  industrial  evils. 

So  far  as  the  following  remarks  constitute  a 
philosophy,  it  is  the  philosophy  of  a  practical 
plan,  not  of  the  perfect  industrial  state  of  the 
future ;  the  philosophy  of  a  practical  begin- 
ning and  a  transit  to  that  state,  not  the  state 
itself. 

It  is  obvious  that  nearly  all  the  social  evils 
have  their  root  in  the  industrial  systenr;  there- 


io      UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY 

fore  a  correct  industrial  system  will  logically 
lead  to  a  correct  social  system. 

The  present  condition  of  the  country  is  one 
of  Danger.  Unfortunately  three  fourths  of 
the  people  do  not  actually  realize  how  im- 
minent it  is ;  yet  to  the  careful  observer  its 
imminence  is  an  unquestionable  fact. 

The  danger  is  not  limited  or  local,  confined 
to  no  locality  or  class.  All  classes,  all  inter- 
ests, the  basic  structure  of  our  government 
itself,  are  imperiled.  So  much  has  been  said 
and  written  demonstrating  this,  and  ignored, 
apparently,  by  most  people,  that  it  is  unneces- 
sary to  here  enter  into  another  diagnosis,  to 
be  again  largely  ignored.  The  nation  is  in 
danger  of  going  to  pieces  while  we  sit  idly  by 
or  fall  out  about  abstract  theories.  The  inertia 
of  the  so-called  intelligent  and  refined  people 
is  nothing  less  than  dangerous — to  them  and 
to  all  the  higher  fruits  of  our  civilization. 

There  is  a  deadlock  practically.  We  are 
in  a  state  of  transition  intellectually  and  mor- 
ally, but  not  practically.  The  crying  need  is 
for  some  practical  procedure,  consistent  with 
all  the  circumstances,  that  will  transform  the 
daily  activities  of  the  people  into  a  process 
of  progressive  transition,  to  thus  provide  an 
avenue  of  practical  progress  fundamentally, 
as  distinguished  from  superficially  and  par- 
tially, and  thus  to  avert  the  danger  by  grad- 
ual elimination  of  the  evils  existing. 

Practical  propositions  of  a  fundamental  na- 


UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY      n 


ture  have  not  been  made  that  the  people  as  a 
whole  have  the  immediate  ability  to  put  into 
motion.  Philosophies,  it  is  true,  have  been  ex- 
pounded, but  no  transitional  modus  operandi 
are  provided  that  are  potentially  comprehen- 
sive. 

It  is  the  purpose  of  this  treatise  to  expound 
briefly  a  plan  that  will  convert  our  stationary 
position  into  one  of  practical  transition.  What 
is  essential  to  such  a  plan? 

Such  a  plan,  to  be  a  right  one,  must  be 
based  upon  the  idea  of  progressiveness  rather 
than  abruptness,  and  must  regard  the  country 
as  a  whole.  The  movement  it  undertakes  to 
embody  must  not  be  a  class  movement  or  a 
local  one.  It  must  be  national.  It  must  per- 
meate all  classes,  all  occupations,  all  industries. 
The  instrumentalities  of  the  plan  must  seek  to 
be  universal  —  must  shut  out  no  one — must 
regard  the  people  as  an  organic  whole. 

Our  danger  is  due  to  the  evils  existing. 
These  evils  are  fundamentally  industrial. 
The  plan  is,  therefore,  an  industrial  plan. 

The  industrial  system  is  a  disordered  one. 
The  disease  is  manifested  in  spots  on  the 
surface,  and  in  either  the  partial  or  entire 
paralysis  of  some  organs.  To  treat  these 
superficially,  that  is,  separately,  is  inadequate. 
The  disease  is  in  the  blood.  We  need  to 
devise  a  remedy  that  will  purify  the  blood, 
purge  it  of  unhealthful  elements.  In  this  way 
the  entire  industrial  system  will  gradually  be 


12      UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY 

made  healthful  in  consequence  of  the  influ- 
ence of  pure  blood  circulating  through  every 
artery  to  the  remotest  part  of  the  system.  The 
point  observed  here  is,  that  we  cannot  remove 
the  old  arteries  and  insert  new  ones  —  we 
must  use  those  that  exist.  We  cannot  with- 
draw the  old  blood,  but  must  inject  an  ele- 
ment into  it  which  will  gradually  overcome 
the  impurities  and  drive  them  out.  The  illus- 
tration is,  of  course,  only  an  illustration,  and 
therefore  not  precise.  A  general  idea  only  is 
sought  to  be  given. 

An  illustration  of  the  diffusiveness  and  im- 
partiality essential  to  a  comprehensive  plan 
may,  perhaps,  be  had  in  the  postal  service. 
It  regards  no  one,  save  as  an  equal  citizen. 
It  makes  no  distinction  between  classes  or  in- 
dividuals—  shuts  out  no  one,  takes  in  no  one. 
You  may  have  many  letters,  you  may  have 
few  —  it  regards  not  you,  it  regards  merely 
the  letters.  It  blesses  no  one  in  particular, 
blesses  us  all  as  a  whole.  Notice  that  it  im- 
poses no  restriction,  imparts  no  favoritism.  It 
is  the  source  of  no  industrial  evil.  It  is  also 
illustrative  of  the  comprehensiveness  essential 
to  the  plan  that  aims  to  be  a  solution,  in  that 
it  is  co-extensive  with  the  nation,  co-extensive 
with  every  requirement  for  its  particular  ser- 
vice. So  must  a  solution,  to  be  a  solution,  be 
co-extensive  with  the  industrial  system,  with 
all  the  evils  of  the  system.  If  the  post-office 
carried  letters  for  a  particular  class  or  locality 


UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY      13 

only,  it  would  but  intensify  the  evils  outside 
of  this  class  or  locality.  So,  if  the  solution 
attempted  be  one  limited  to  one  class  or  local- 
ity, it  will  but  serve  to  intensify  the  existing 
evils  to  those  not  included.  Again  this  is  but 
a  general  illustration,  and  not  precise. 

The  object  is  to  direct  attention  to  the  idea 
that  the  separate  evils  of  the  industrial  system 
are  separate  only  superficially.  Fundamen- 
tally they  have  a  more  or  less  common  origin, 
and  they  permeate  everywhere.  Also  to  the 
idea  that  the  solution,  or  the  plan,  ought  es- 
sentially to  be  one  whose  application  is  un- 
limited and  impartial,  just  as  our  political 
institution  is  based  on  impartiality.  It  must 
disregard,  in  principle,  the  distinct  demarca- 
tion between  classes,  to  intensify  which  would 
be  an  evil 

It  appears  self-evident  that  there  can  be 
but  one  solution.  There  cannot  be  several. 
The  right  one  is  essentially  a  thing  of  oneness. 
So  long  as  there  are  many,  it  is  evidence  that 
we  have  not  yet  the  entirely  right  one.  When 
we  find  or  construct  that  one,  whatever  it  may 
be,  it  will  be  found  to  be  an  automatic  self- 
propelling  one,  operating  itself  by  virtue  of  its 
inherent  power  through  being  right. 

Since  all  process  is  the  operation  of  natural 
laws  as  they  affect  our  industrial  affairs,  the 
right  plan  must  necessarily  be  framed  accord- 
ing to  the  operation  of  these  laws.  Law 
{natural  law)  is  no  respecter  of  persons  or  of 


i4      UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY 

ideas.  It  is  immutable.  So  far  as  we  disre- 
gard it  we  fail.  In  devising  this  plan,  that 
which  we  should  wish  or  like  is  subordinate 
to  what  conditions  law  imposts. 

This  is  but  a  reminder  of  the  axiom,  "  Noth- 
ing is  ever  settled  until  it  is  settled  right."  No 
matter  how  often  we  may  think  it  has  been 
settled,  it  will  "  bob  "  up  again  until  settled 
right. 

Let  us  approach  the  situation  before  us  in 
this  spirit,  and  proceed  impartially  to  discover 
the  right  premises. 

We  discover,  then,  by  deduction  from  these 
generalizations,  that  the  plan  must  be  co-ex- 
tensive, potentially  at  least,  with  the  entire 
industrial  system ;  in  other  words,  it  must  be 
comprehensive.  No  fundamental  evil  of  the 
system  is  at  all  local.  Each  evil  permeates 
through  every  class  and  occupation,  to  the 
remotest  parts  of  the  country.  An  enterprise 
of  a  limited  nature,  such  as  the  recent  cooper- 
ative propositions  (very  worthy  so  far  as  they 
go),  is  not  and  cannot  be  a  complete  solu- 
tion within  any  reasonable  time.  At  best, 
the  group  isolates  or  excludes  itself  from  the 
operation  of  a  certain  evil ;  but  the  area  of 
the  evil  is  by  that  much  reduced,  and  pro- 
portionately intensified  for  the  rest  of  the 
people  —  not  eliminated.  Thus,  while  being 
an  improved  productive  enterprise  (if  it  really 
is  such),  and  perhaps  a  social  improvement  to 
those  who  compose  the  group,  it  is  not,  how- 


UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY 


ever,  a  solution  of  any  evil.  It  leaves  the 
question  as  open  as  it  was  before. 

Second,  we  discover  that  something  must  be 
devised  that  is  impartial  and  diffusive — im- 
partial, so  it  will  be  concretely  fair  to  every 
one  ;  diffusive  like  sunshine,  so  it  will  permeate 
into  the  environment  of  each,  and  melt  away 
the  evils,  the  burdens,  the  injustices,  the  re- 
strictive conditions  which  fetter  and  demoral- 
ize us. 

Comprehensiveness  and  impartiality  being 
conceded  essentials  to  the  plan,  the  point  next 
in  order  is  to  examine  what  characteristics  are 
requisite  to  "  immediate  practicability. "  Prac- 
ticable some  future  time,  under  other  than 
existing  environments  and  obstacles,  is  quite 
another  thing  from  being  practicable  at  once, 
under  all  the  circumstances  immediately  con- 
fronting us.  Progressiveness  — that  is  to  say, 
gradual  procedure  —  must  be  reckoned  upon. 
We  obtain  immediate  practicability  by  over- 
coming obstacles  or  by  being  independent  of 
them. 

The  chief  obstacle  appears  to  be  the  im- 
possibility of  obtaining  legislation.  Hitherto 
the  accomplishment  of  nearly  every  reform  ap- 
peared to  depend  upon  being  applied  through 
legislation.  Such  a  course  is  quite  hopeless  for 
our  present  purpose.  History  demonstrates 
that  legislation  usually  follows  twenty  to  forty 
years  after  the  people  are  ripe  enough  for  it. 
As  we   are   now  situated   politically,  before 


1 6      UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY 


legislation  can  be  had  in  the  line  of  compre- 
hensive reform,  or  to  an  extent  sufficient 
to  eliminate  our  dangers  and  sufferings,  the 
people  must  be  brought  to  a  universal  high 
degree  of  understanding  upon  the  subject, 
and  thus  the  popular  demand  be  made  over- 
whelming. The  popular  inertia  must  be  elim- 
inated. But  this  inertia  and  ignorance  is  it- 
self an  evil,  due  fundamentally  to  industrial 
conditions,  and  one  which  it  must  be  an  ex- 
press purpose  of  this  plan  to  remedy,  and 
therefore  to  be  independent  of  in  the  begin- 
ning, in  order  to  be  immediately  practicable. 
It  must,  therefore,  be  one  capable  of  being 
put  into  practice  independently  of  legislation. 
It  must,  however,  obtain  a  popular  support, 
self-evidently,  in  order  to  be  comprehensive. 
It  must,  therefore,  be  capable  of  obtaining 
this  in  spite  of  popular  inertia  and  ignorance. 
In  this  connection  be  it  said,  the  inability  to 
obtain  popular  support  of  previous  proposi- 
tions was  due  to  lack  of  sufficient  practicability. 
In  the  manner  in  which  people  were  conditioned 
they  were  not  able  to  cooperate  with  the  re- 
form. ;  no  avenue  was  provided  that  they  could 
enter  into  without  risk,  lesion,  or  hardship. 
Others  were  not  directly  enough  interested, 
or  too  uninformed  to  see  their  interest.  Our 
plan  must,  therefore,  be  not  only  to  the  inter- 
est of  each  person,  but  must  provide  means 
of  transforming  that  interest  into  act.  How 
is  this  difficult  feat  to  be  performed  ?     By 


UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY      17 

realizing  certain  practical  facts  —  namely,  by 
observing  the  precise  present  condition  of 
people,  how  that  condition  influences  the  man- 
ner and  direction  of  their  acts  (industrially), 
and  what  is  the  factor  common  to  all  activi- 
ties in  the  industrial  sphere.  That  factor,  the 
source  of  every  act,  the  motive  that  is  the 
common  propeller  of  us  all,  is  self-interest — 
selfishness  if  you  please.  And  the  common 
character  we  possess  (industrially)  when  exer- 
cising self-interest  is  that  of  buyer  and  seller. 
Whatever  our  social  or  moral  feelings  may 
be,  we  at  present  possess  no  power  to  act  in- 
dustrially other  than  as  buyers  and  sellers. 
This  is  not  immoral  per  se.  It  is  an  impor- 
tant practical  characteristic.  If  we  can  devise 
a  plan  wherein  the  buyer  and  seller  as  such, 
to  his  self-interest  as  such,  finds  an  avenue 
immediately  open  to  him,  through  which  he 
cooperates  in  the  support  of  the  plan,  he  will 
assuredly  do  so,  whether  he  understands  much 
or  little  about  the  philosophies  of  his  life  and 
acts.  The  practical  consideration  here  is,  that 
he  becomes  a  support  to,  and  an  instrument 
in  the  hands  of,  this  institution,  for  all  the 
good  purposes  of  the  institution.  Such  prac- 
tical provisions  being  immediately  present, 
every  one,  then,  is  possessed  of  the  power, 
and  is  conditioned,  to  act  freely  and  without 
effort  in  the  support  of  the  plan.  If,  for  ex- 
ample, the  plan  contemplates  an  ostensibly 
"buying  and  selling"  institution,  there  is  then 


18      UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY 


a  practical  factor  common  to  both  the  insti- 
tution and  the  whole  people. 

Observe  that  self-interest  is  a  very  impor- 
tant factor.  When  we  mail  a  letter,  for  exam- 
ple, had  we  not  the  post-office  we  would  mail 
it  another  way ;  but  having  the  post-office  we 
mail  it  that  way  and  thus  support  that  institu- 
tion. If,  however,  a  private  institution  existed 
that  carried  letters  at  a  lower  rate  than  the 
post-office,  our  self-interest  would  prevent  us 
from  patronizing  the  post-office,  no  matter  wha  t 
injury  would  result  to  our  institutions.  The 
post-office  is  no  less  an  institution  for  good 
because  its  service  is  cheap  and  it  appeals  to 
our  self-interest.  It  is  primarily  an  entirely 
practical  institution,  and  is  moral  through 
being  practical.  Can  we  take  a  lesson  from 
this,  and  devise  a  plan  that  succeeds  in  working 
out  moral  results  through  being  practicaly?/-^/ 
It  may  not  appear  clear  at  once  what  applica- 
tion this  paragraph  has  to  the  subject  in  hand. 
It  will  appear,  however,  farther  along. 

Inasmuch  as  we  are  dealing  with  the  in- 
dustrial system,  we  have  to  deal  with  those 
in  that  system  ;  not  as  free  and  unincumbered 
moral  human  beings,  but  as  variously  and 
peculiarly  conditioned  self-interested  persons 
in  their  specific  characters  of  buyer  and  seller. 
This  character  of  buyer  and  seller  is  peculiar 
to  our  present  system.  It  is  not  our  wish ; 
we  are  simply  born  to  it  and  can't  help  it. 

I  may  be  a  physician,  a  business  man,  a 


UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY      19 

manufacturer,  a  working-man,  a  farmer — in 
each  case  I  am  a  seller.  I  sell  my  services 
or  skill,  my  goods  or  my  labor.  Theoretically 
I  exchange,  but  practically  I  merely  "sell" 
—  in  the  commercial,  business  sense.  There 
is  no  way  in  which  I  can  exchange  except  by 
"selling."  As  a  consumer  I  am  a  "buyer," 
the  opposite  of  a  seller. 

The  future  contemplates  us  as  workers  in 
common  for  common  maintenance  —  from 
each  according  to  his  ability,  to  each  ac- 
cording to  his  needs ;  or  some  other  way  of 
expressing  economic  equality. 

Logically  prior  to  that  there  must  be  a  pe- 
riod of  cooperation  or  mutualism  —  full  and 
complete  cooperation,  but  not  necessarily  ab- 
solute economic  equality.  Each  producer  pro- 
duces at  his  will  or  ability,  and  exchanges  the 
product,  through  means  provided,  for  equal 
value  in  the  product  of  others.  He  does  not 
sell  and  buy  in  the  commercial  sense  of  to-day. 

Prior  to  this  is  our  buying  and  selling, 
purely  commercial  state  of  to-day. 

We  cannot  leap  from  one  state  to  another. 
The  transition  must  be  gradual.  It  may  be 
quite  fast,  but  nevertheless  must  be  gradual. 
This  implies  a  beginning,  and  that  beginning 
must  fit  precisely  into  the  present  arrangement 
of  affairs  —  deal  with  each  as  buyer  and  seller 
(perhaps  for  only  a  short  time,  but  must,  never- 
theless, begin  so),  and  appeal  to  every  one's 
immediate  self-interest  as  such.     Beginning 


2o      UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY 


thus,  and  retaining  the  constant,  spontaneous 
support  of  the  people  in  their  industrial  char- 
acter, the  plan  should  be  to  gradually  work  a 
quiet  and  painless  rearrangement  of  industrial 
affairs.  Our  plan  at  this  end,  no  matter  where 
we  may  place  the  other  end,  must  dovetail 
into  the  present  —  must  blend  into  it.  We 
cannot  suddenly  'separate  ourselves  from  the 
instruments  of  production,  nor  from  the  exist- 
ing instrumentalities  of  the  system.  We  can- 
not suddenly  create  a  new  system.  It  must 
be  evolved  out  of  the  old.  We  cannot  remove 
the  individual  —  be  he  professional,  manufac- 
turer, working-man,  or  farmer — from  his  en- 
vironment, nor  suddenly  sweep  out  of  his 
mind  all  the  opinions  due  to  it.  We  need 
his  cooperation  in  working  out  a  solution  — 
it  wouldn't  be  a  solution  without  him ;  hence 
we  must  dovetail  our  transition  plan  or  pro- 
cess into  his  environment,  and  translate  our 
methods  into  his  language,  providing  com- 
mercial methods  through  which  he  can  act. 

Realizing  the  danger  of  the  deadlock,  the 
futility  of  changing  our  skins  or  escaping  from 
the  conditions  which  pin  us  each  to  our  par- 
ticular bread-and-butter  occupation,  the  neces- 
sity for  a  something  that  will  embrace  us  all, 
the  incompleteness  if  it  doesn't,  the  evident 
power  of  large  support  if  it  does,  has  been., 
the  cause  of  the  peculiar  character  of  the  pre- 
ceding reflections. 


UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY      21 

With  these  in  mind,  let  us  attempt  a  brief 
examination  of  the  principles  and  laws  that 
operate  in  and  govern  industrial  life.  We 
may  find  it  possible  to  construct  a  plan  that 
will  be  good  in  result,  while  at  the  same  time 
embodying  the  preceding  features  of  prac- 
ticability. 


II 


THE    DOMINATING    LAW    OF 
ECONOMY 

FIRST  let  us  point  out  the  general  prin- 
ciple or  law  which  governs  the  industrial 
system  as  a  whole ;  second,  the  fundamental 
evils  and  their  cause ;  third,  the  precise  avenue 
in  which  a  plan  may  be  most  applicable  and 
most  obedient  to  its  purposes. 

Dominating  the  industrial  system  as  a  whole 
there  is,  aside  from  the  influence  of  mistaken 
human  arrangements,  one  supreme,  immutable 
law,  denominated  "the  tendency  toward  more 
economical  production."  That  this  tendency 
is  irresistible  by  any  human  power  can  be 
clearly  traced  in  industrial  affairs  of  the  past. 
Every  protest  against  the  introduction  of 
more  economical  methods  is  futile.  In  their 
superior  power  over  others  there  can  be  no 
question.  Evils  have  resulted  as  a  conse- 
quence, quite  truly ;  but  the  evils  are  not  due 
to  the  law,  but  to  mistaken  human  arrange- 
ments. 


UNIVERSAL   .PROSPERITY      23 

This  law  has  brought  about  all  the  changes 
from  the  simple  and  crude  forms  of  industry 
down  to  the  present  ones  of  steam,  electricity, 
machinery,  and  organization.  Whatever  tends 
to  greater  economy  is  a  conversion  of  this 
law  into  irresistible  power  in  the  hands  of 
those  who  possess  it.  This  is  manifested  in 
monopolies,  trusts,  large  factories  and  stores, 
large  aggregations  of  working-men  and  the  in- 
struments of  production.  This  power  exerts 
itself  through  price.  These  institutions  exist 
because  they  can  produce  or  sell  cheaper. 
Subordinate  factors  there  may  be,  but  this  is 
the  fundamental  factor.  Large  enterprises 
and  large  aggregations  of  capital  could  not 
drive  others  out  of  business,  or  throttle  them, 
if  they  were  not  able  to  sell  cheaper.  Large 
capital  would  have  no  advantage  over  small 
capital  except  for  this  and  for  the  subordinate 
iniquitous  features  of  our  present  financial 
system. 

An  evidence  that  people  can  and  will  act 
only  out  of  immediate  self-interest  is  furnished 
by  the  continued  existence  and  growth  of  these 
large  institutions.  Industrially  people  do  not 
(as  yet,  at  least)  act  from  moral  impulse,  nor 
even  from  remote  self-interest.  They  act  solely 
from  immediate  self-interest.  While  we  theo- 
retically feel  and  condemn  the  evils  which 
large  enterprises  appear  to  be  the  source  of, 
we  practically  flock  to  their  emporiums  and 
make  our  purchases  there,  and  thus  perpetu- 


24      UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY 


ate  them  and  their  evil  power — all  because  we 
can  buy  cheaper  there.  We  are  so  conditioned 
that  we  cannot  resist  the  attraction  of  price. 

If  a  plan  to  remedy  affairs  is  contemplated 
it  must  take  the  form  of  some  kind  of  indus- 
trial institution.  As  before  explained,  it  must 
be  practical  in  character,  not  theoretical.  It 
must  operate  consistently  with  this  law  of 
economy,  and  do  so  to  a  degree  sufficient  to 
give  it  power  in  industrial  affairs  through  the 
practical  medium  of  price.  The  price  must 
be  lower  not  only  than  others  do  sell  but  lower 
than  they  can  sell.  Given  this  power,  this 
factor,  and  the  people  will  irresistibly  support 
it  without  ado.  And  if  the  institution  is  one 
whose  purposes  are  good,  there  is  then  all  the 
less  doubt  of  its  being  supported.  No  legis- 
lation is  required  to  compel  them.  There  is 
no  compulsion  of  that  kind  that  could  serve 
any  good  purpose. 

We  are  dealing  here  with  the  subject  of 
means  as  means,  without  regard,  at  present, 
to  the  ends.  Means  must  be  sought  first  be- 
fore an  end  can  be  accomplished.  We  dis- 
cover that  the  more  we  subserve  the  law  of 
economy  the  more  do  we  acquire  power  to 
exert  upon  industrial  affairs ;  the  less  that 
we  subserve  that  law  the  less  power  do  we 
obtain  ;  and  further,  that  this  power,  for  the 
purpose  of  an  immediately  practical  institu- 
tion, must  be  exerted  through  the  medium  of 
low  price. 


Ill 

INTEREST 

THIS  brings  us,  then,  to  the  question  how- 
to  accomplish  the  required  economy ; 
but,  at  the  same  time,  we  must  understand 
the  workings  of  the  present  arrangement,  and 
they  may  point  out  an  avenue  of  approach. 

The  evils  of  the  present  system  are  due  to 
two  fundamental  errors  of  human  arrangement 
—  the  factor  we  term  Interest,  and  the  lack 
of  balance  between  Production  and  Consump- 
tion, or,  in  other  words,  between  Production 
and  Want.  It  is  the  express  purpose  not  to 
enter  into  an  extensive  philosophic  exposition 
of  these  matters,  but  merely  to  refer  to  them 
in  such  a  brief  and  practical  way  as  will  serve 
the  purpose,  leaving  the  reader  to  refer  to 
other  works  for  fuller  instruction. 

On  the  subject  of  Interest  a  more  scholarly 
and  clear  exposition  is  not  extant  than  Mr. 
J.  W.  Bennett's  article  in  the  Arena  of  March, 
1894,  under  the  title,  "The  Cause  of  Financial 
Panics."  The  reader  is  especially  referred  to 
•25 


2b      UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY 


this,  as  forming,  virtually,  a  part  of  the  sub- 
ject of  this  book. 

The  general  evil  result  of  Interest  is  appa- 
rent when  we  consider  merely  certain  incon- 
testable facts. 

First,  the  degree  to  which  it  is  a  factor  in 
every  business  transaction.  It  forms  a  part 
of  every  price  along  the  whole  line  from  the 
first  touch  an  article  receives  as  raw  material 
until  it  reaches  the  consumer,  who  has  to  pay, 
in  the  final  price  to  him,  all  the  cumulative 
interest.  Every  dollar  invested  in  business 
claims  a  return  called  Interest — aside  from 
profit  as  distinguished  from  Interest.  Every 
business  house  is  obliged  to  pay  interest 
charges,  more  or  less.  Every  business  trans- 
action is  a  time  transaction,  more  or  less ; 
and  even  when  a  purchase  is  made  for  cash, 
the  goods  purchased  have  had  to  be  kept  in 
stock  for  a  time,  during  which  an  interest 
charge  has  accrued  against  them.  The  cost, 
to  the  business  world,  of  carrying  on  busi- 
ness is  greatly  enlarged  by  reason  of  Interest, 
which  Capital  is  enabled  to  exact  in  conse- 
quence of  its  possession  by  a  few,  its  monop- 
oly of  money,  and  the  impossibility,  there- 
fore, of  any  houses  but  a  very  few  being  able 
to  avoid  it. 

When  we  buy  an  article,  we  commonly 
think,  if  we  think  that  far,  that  the  dealer 
has  added  his  interest  in  the  price ;  but  we 
forget   that  several  times  before  it  reached 


UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY      27 

him  has  interest  been  added  by  each  of  the 
houses  through  which  it  passed  —  the  whole- 
saler, the  jobber,  the  manufacturer,  the  pro- 
ducer—  all  of  which  the  retailer  has  had  to 
pay,  and  therefore  add  before  he  adds  his 
own  interest  charge. 

An  illustration  suggested  in  "  StockwelPs 
Bad  Boy  "  will  be  interesting.  A  farmer  sells 
some  wool  and  afterward  buys  a  piece  of 
cloth  for  a  coat  for  his  boy.  (The  author 
of  "  Stockwell's  Bad  Boy  "  doubtless  errs  in 
figuring  interest,  in  the  following  example,  at 
6  per  cent.,  for  each  transaction  would  thus 
imply  a  period  of  six  to  twelve  months.  A 
business  house  will  turn  its  dormant  or  fixed 
capital  only  once  a  year,  figuratively,  but 
will  turn  its  active  capital  several  times  in  a 
year.  Hence  interest  should  more  properly 
be  figured  at  3  to  4  per  cent.,  and  sometimes 
lower.) 

Paid  farmer  for  wool $1.00 

Interest,  at  6  per  cent 06 

Profit,  10  per  cent 10 

Sold  to  manufacturer  by  wool-merchant  for  $1.16 

Cost  of  manufacture,  25  per  cent 30 

Interest,  6  per  cent 09 

Profit,  10  per  cent 155 

Sold  to  jobber  for $1. 705 

Interest,  6  per  cent 102 

Profit,  10  per  cent 18 

Sold  to  wholesaler  for .\    $1,987 


28      UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY 


Wholesaler's  interest,  6  per  cent 12 

Wholesaler's  profit,  10  per  cent 21 

Sold  to  retailer  for $2,317 

Retailer's  interest,  6  per  cent 139 

Retailer's  profit,  10  per  cent 245 

Sold  cloth  to  farmer  for $2.70 

The  above,  not  being  precise,  is  intended 
merely  as  an  illustration.  To  observe  the  im- 
portance of  it,  let  us  see  how  this  would  figure 
out  if  there  were  an  instrumentality  enabling 
us  to  do  the  business  of  the  country  on  a 
cash  basis : 

Paid  farmer  for  wool $1.00 

Profit,  at  10  per  cent 10 

Sold  to  manufacturer  for $1. 10 

Cost  of  manufacture,  25  per  cent 275 

Profit,  at  10  per  cent 138 

Sold  to  jobber  for $1,513 

Jobber's  profit,  10  per  cent 152 

Sold  to  wholesaler  for $1,665 

Wholesaler's  profit,  10  per  cent 167 

Sold  to  retailer  for $1,832 

Retailer's  profit,  10  per  cent 183 

Sold  cloth  to  farmer  for $2.02 


A  difference  of  68  cents,  or  about  S3  Per 
cent.  In  other  words,  the  farmer  has  paid 
for  the  cloth  33  per  cent,  more  than  he  would 


UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY      29 

have  been  obliged  to  pay  were  the  business 
of  the  country  done  on  a  cash  basis.  It  is 
interesting  to  follow  this  still  farther  and  note 
that,  were  the  retailer  to  deal  with  the  manu- 
facturer direct,  the  price  of  the  cloth  would 
have  been  still  less,  namely,  $1.66 — a  differ- 
ence of  about  60  per  cent. 

Incidentally,  it  is  to  be  remembered  that 
profit  here  is  only  a  nominal  term.  It  should 
rather  be  termed  margin.  Out  of  this  the 
expense  of  doing  business,  other  than  inter- 
est charges,  is  to  be  paid.  Most  usually  both 
interest  and  profit  are  covered  by  the  term 
"  margin,"  as  it  is  not  always  possible  to 
say,  on  each  particular  transaction,  just  where 
interest  ends  and  expense  begins,  where  ex- 
pense ends  and  profit  begins.  The  whole  is 
covered  by  a  margin,  and  after  interest  and 
other  expenses  are  paid,  at  end  of  the  year, 
the  margin  remaining  is  net  profit — if  there 
is  any  remainder.  Many  manufacturers  and 
dealers  make  at  present  very  little  net  profit 
in  the  long  run.  It  would  be  nearer  right  to 
call  all  the  above  items  of  profit  by  the  name 
of  margin. 

The  point  made  here  is  to  show  how  large 
a  factor  Interest  is  in  every  price,  in  every 
transaction,  and  to  observe  that  it  is  not  re- 
tained by  the  dealer  or  manufacturer  as  such. 
It  is  paid  to  Capital.  To  be  more  correct,  it  is 
paid  largely  to  holders  of  money  —  the  monop- 
olizers of  the  commercial  tool  termed- money. 


So      UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY 


It  might  be  further  observed,  in  passing, 
that  there  is  hardly  an  item  of  wealth  in  use 
that  is  not  made  to  yield  interest  perma- 
nently. All  land  and  dwellings,  every  piece 
of  machinery,  even  the  bricks  in  the  side- 
walk and  the  stones  in  the  street,  are  made 
to  pay  interest.  Everything  pays  interest. 
Look  about  you  as  you  walk  the  streets  — 
point  out,  if  you  can,  something  that  is  not 
made  to  yield  interest.  Point  out  something 
we  buy,  or  some  corporate  service,  that  we 
do  not  pay  interest  on.  Everything  represents 
an  investment,  and  an  investment  is  some- 
thing which  is  expected  to  yield  a  return  over 
and  above  its  keep  or  replacement.  Follow 
up  this  thought,  and  try  to  trace  all  the  rami- 
fications of  interest,  and  see  where  it  finally 
goes  to,  at  what  point  it  stops  going.  For 
instance,  if  the  retailer's  interest,  and  the 
wholesaler's,  and  the  jobber's,  and  the  manu- 
facturer's, and  so  on,  is  not  retained  by  them, 
where  does  it  stop?  Examine  even  the  course 
of  this  feature,  Interest,  in  the  Building  and 
Loan  Companies  —  the  poor  man's  friend. 
It  should  be  followed  as  it  passes  from  hand 
to  hand  until  it  stops,  and  then  note  what  is 
the  final  factor  or  person  who  receives  it,  and 
what  it  is  received  for. 

It  does  not  suffice  for  me  to  say  that  Cap- 
ital gets  it  —  Capital  or  Capitalism  as  such; 
not  the  individual  as  such,  but  that  soulless 
thing  or  fiction  termed  "Capital"  —  but  by 


UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY      31 

which  we  mean  "money"  in  this  connection. 
It  does  not  suffice  for  me  to  say  that,  for  the 
reader  must  trace  the  operation  of  interest  at 
each  step,  and  question  it  as  to  the  reason  for 
its  being  at  each  recurring  point,  before  he 
can  gain  a  tolerable  impression  as  to  whether 
interest  is  right  or  wrong,  and  whether  it  is 
friend  or  enemy.  He  must  think  it  out  for 
himself.  The  question  of  its  right  or  wrong 
it  is  not  intended  to  here  discuss,  but  merely 
to  observe  certain  bare  facts.  The  moral 
right  and  wrong  is  ably  treated  by  Mr.  Ben- 
nett in  the  article  previously  named. 

Having  illustrated  the  presence  of  interest 
in  all  buying  and  selling,  all  business  trans- 
actions, in  particular,  let  us  observe  its  final 
aspect  in  general  as  concerning  the  country 
as  a  whole — the  other  end  of  the  problem. 

From  Mr.  Bennett's  article  we  learn  that 
the  present  wealth  of  the  United  States  is,  in 
round  figures,  $72,000,000,000,  of  which  80 
per  cent,  is  interest-bearing,  at  an  average  rate 
—  low  estimate  —  of  6  per  cent.,  making  an 
annual  interest  charge  of  over  $3,000,000,000, 
or  $30,000,000,000  in  a  decade.  This  can 
be  paid  only  out  of,  or  with,  that  which  we 
term  increase  of  wealth — that  which  we  have 
not  consumed.  This  increase  of  wealth  has 
been,  in  the  last  decade,  $22,000,000,000; 
leaving  thus  a  deficit  of  $8,000,000,000.  But 
on  top  of  this  great  debt  is  to  be  added  the 
cost    of    government    in   everv   form.     This 


32      UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY 

amounts  to  about  $9,000,000,000  in  a  dec- 
ade. Thus  there  is  a  total  deficit  of  $1 7,000,- 
000,000  in  ten  years,  which  we  are  utterly 
unable  to  pay.  "  In  view  of  such  figures  as 
these,"  says  Mr.  Bennett,  "  it  is  not  difficult 
to  see  why  we  have  periods  of  depression 
every  ten  years  and  terrible  financial  panics 
every  twenty  years."  We  simply  go  into 
bankruptcy  every  ten  and  twenty  years. 

It  is  curious  that  business  men,  who,  above 
all  others,  ought  to  know  this  best,  do  not 
appear  to  be  aware  of  it  at  all.  Surely  it  is 
as  plain  as  a  pikestaff  that  this,  and  not  Tariff, 
Gold,  Silver,  or  want  of  confidence,  is  the 
cause  of  industrial  depression  —  industrial 
deadlocks,  rather. 

This  principle  of  Interest,  which  is,  so  to 
speak,  the  basis  of  the  business  system,  the 
god  which  the  business  man  worships,  is  as 
surely  destroying  him  as  that  night  follows 
day. 

Interest  is,  furthermore,  the  fundamental 
cause  of  concentration  of  wealth,  which  every- 
body seemingly  is  ready  to  protest  against, 
yet  does  not  seek  to  learn  the  cause  of.  Let 
us  see : 

Of  the  $72,000,000,000  present  wealth,  80 
percent.,  or  $55,000,000,000,  is  held  by  250,- 
000  persons.  $50,000,000,000  of  this  bears 
interest ;  compound  interest,  be  it  remembered, 
for,  when  Capital  receives  interest,  that  inter- 
est becomes  further  capital  to  earn  further 


UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY      33 

interest.  If  nothing  were  to  happen  and  the 
country  could  pay  the  interest,  this  sum  would 
double  itself  in  fourteen  years,  figuring  5 
per  cent.  Adding  to  this  the  $5,000,000,000 
omitted  as  not  out  upon  interest,  we  have 
.$105,000,000,000  as  the  sum  which  "concen- 
trated wealth"  would  possess  in  1908.  Now, 
if  the  wealth  of  the  country  is  increasing  at 
the  rate  of  $2,200,000,000  per  year,  the  total 
wealth  of  the  nation  will  be  only  $102,800,- 
000,000  in  1908  —  as  against  $105,000,000,- 
000  which  concentrated  wealth  has  the  power 
to  absorb  by  that  time.  It  is  clear,  therefore, 
that,  if  nothing  were  to  happen,  the  entire 
national  wealth  will  have  been  absorbed  into 
the  possessions  of  these  few  before  that  time. 
It  actually  does  work  this  way,  and  has  been 
working  this  way,  except  that  its  actual  speed 
is  slower  in  consequence  of  our  inability  to 
pay  and  the  resulting  panics  and  bankruptcies. 
Coordinately  with  the  accumulation  of  more 
wealth  upon  the  part  of  those  already  pos- 
sessed of  great  wealth  goes  the  concentration 
of  wealth  into  the  hands  of  ever  fewer  and 
fewer  persons ;  so  that,  were  present  arrange- 
ments to  endure,  it  is  quite  probable  that 
within  twenty  or  thirty  years  almost  the  en- 
tire wealth  of  the  country  will  be  in  the  pos- 
session of  not  over  a  few  thousand  persons, 
if,  indeed,  more  than  a  few  hundred.  A  great 
number  of  fortunes  still  existing  will  finally 
have  to  give  up  the  struggle  to  the  few  im- 


34      UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY 


mense  ones.  No  ordinary  fortune  or  business 
of  to-day  has  the  slightest  chance  to  continue 
unimpaired.  The  business  man,  as  an  inde- 
pendent business  man,  is  doomed  ;  his  struggle 
is  utterly  hopeless. 

This,  then,  is  the  error  referred  to,  called 
Interest  —  an  error  of  human  arrangements. 
It  is  not  alone  an  error  of  method,  but  also 
one  of  principle.  The  principle  is  as  wrong 
at  i  per  cent,  as  at  10  per  cent.  The  moral 
of  the  question  entirely  aside,  it  is  wrong  sci- 
entifically. It  will  not  be  necessary  to  argue 
that  here.  It  will  be  self-evident  to  any  re- 
flecting person,  especially  if  he  reads  Mr.  Ben- 
nett's article. 

Returning  to  the  object  of  our  endeavor, 
the  plan  which  we  are  to  construct,  we  per- 
ceive that  Interest  is  an  evil  principle  which 
must  be  eliminated  from  the  industrial  sys- 
tem. We  dare  not  say  it  is  impossible.  It 
says  must,  or  your  life!  And  we  must  do  it 
without  violation  of  the  law  of  economical 
production,  as  well  as  without  impairing  pro- 
ductive facilities. 

Contemplating  an  institution  of  buying  and 
selling,  as  previously  pointed  out,  it  is  evident 
this  institution  must  exist  without  being  per- 
manently subject  to  the  burden  of  interest. 
That  accomplished,  it  likewise  will  not  charge 
interest. 

This  causes  us  to  observe  that  Interest  is 
at  once  the  strength  and   the  weakness  of 


UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY      35 

Capitalism.  It  has  been  its  strength  because 
it  has  enabled  it  to  grow  and  to  concentrate. 
It  is  its  weakness  because  Interest  is  an  ab- 
solute necessity  to  its  life,  to  its  evil  power. 
Hence,  to  remove  the  chief  evil  of  Capitalism, 
it  is  but  necessary  to  remove  this  food  which 
is  its  life.  If,  therefore,  we  can  so  organize 
an  institution  that  wt  obviate  both  interest- 
paying  and  interest-charging,  we  have  dis- 
covered the  secret  which  will  enable  us  to 
compete  successfully  with  the  hitherto  great 
power  of  Capitalism. 

But  we  cannot  remove  Interest  by  law  or 
arbitrary  edict.  Interest  springs  from  a  con- 
dition of  financial  and  industrial  arrangements, 
which  condition  must  be  either  eliminated  or 
circumvented.  We  cannot  do  this  without 
dealing  with  the  money  question.  But,  in 
order  to  make  unnecessary  an  abstruse  dis- 
quisition on  money,  let  us  first  investigate  the 
other  evil  mentioned,  namely,  the  lack  of  bal- 
ance between  Production  and  Consumption. 


IV 


LACK  OF  BALANCE  BETWEEN  PRO- 
DUCTION AND   CONSUMPTION 

BY  lack  of  balance  is  meant  that  state  of 
affairs  which  presents  to  us,  on  the  one 
hand,  a  great  number  of  manufacturing  enter- 
prises and  agricultural  producers  languishing 
for  want  of  a  market,  with,  on  the  other  hand, 
a  great  multitude  of  consumers  wanting  and 
craving  for  the  very  things  which  the  former 
want  to  sell.  It  is  impossible  by  our  present 
arrangement  for  the  two  to  come  together 
and  effect  an  exchange  —  each  buying  from 
the  other,  and  at  the  same  time  each  selling 
to  the  other. 

Every  producer  is  a  consumer,  and  every 
consumer  is  a  producer — of  services  or  pro- 
ducts ;  this  in  a  commercial  and  not  a  phil- 
osophic sense.  The  philosophic  term  "non- 
producer,"  as  applied  to  those  persons  who 
produce  merely  "services,"  has  no  place  here 
for  practical  purposes.  If  a  man  serve  so- 
36 


UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY      37 


ciety  by  teaching,  or  as  a  physician,  a  clerk, 
or  a  street-car  driver,  he  is  equally  a  pro- 
ducer with  him  who  works  on  the  farm  or  in 
the  workshop. 

We  have  to  deal  practically,  therefore,  with 
every  person  as  a  producer  of  useful  service 
or  product,  so  far  as  he  is  such — and  at  the 
same  time  as  a  consumer.  It  is  observed  that 
no  producer,  however,  consumes  identically 
his  own  product.  In  order  to  produce  eco- 
nomically or  advantageously  to  himself  as 
well  as  to  society  (to  say  nothing  of  the  im- 
practicability of  his  doing  otherwise)  he  must 
confine  himself,  as  a  rule,  to  some  single  pro- 
duct or  occupation.  In  consequence,  he  is 
obliged  to  exchange  this  product  or  service 
which  he  does  not  need  for  that  product  or 
service  of  others  which  they  do  not  need  and 
he  does.  He  does  this  by  selling  it  for  money, 
and  with  that  money  buying  back  from  the 
world's  stock  the  goods  or  services  which  he 
needs.  As  a  producer  he  is  a  seller,  as  a  con- 
sumer he  is  a  buyer.  In  this  connection  he 
is  obliged  to  use  money  as  a  medium  of  ex- 
change. Money,  here,  is  neither  the  thing  he 
sells  nor  that  which  he  buys.  It  is  merely  a 
certificate  or  the  representative  of  that  which 
he  sells  and  buys — be  careful  to  observe  that 
it  is  not  the  thing  itself.  With  money  as  the 
instrument  or  tool  —  with  money  as  a  sub- 
stitute for  bookkeeping  —  he  makes  the  ex- 
change  of  his  product   for  the  product  of 


38      UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY 


others.  This  necessitates  an  intermediary  in- 
stitution termed  the  Distributive  System,  to 
which  he  sells  and  from  which  he  buys.  It 
is  a  matter  of  fact  that,  in  consequence  of 
present  evils,  he  cannot  readily  sell ;  and  to 
the  degree  that  he  cannot  sell  he  ceases  to  be 
a  buyer.  It  does  not  help  business  as  a  whole 
one  iota  to  discharge  working-men  in  conse- 
quence of  lack  of  business  to  keep  them  em- 
ployed, for  by  that  very  act  we  cause  still  less 
volume  of  business,  through  the  lessening  of 
purchasing  power  corresponding  to  the  wages 
thus  lessened.  It  is  no  answer  to  say  that 
we  produce  enough  for  all  with  so  many  less 
workers.  Practically  we  do  not,  for  the  idle 
workman  lacks  the  purchasing  power  with 
which  to  obtain  a  part  of  the  product  created. 
If  he  does  not  work  he  does  not  sell  (hislabor 
or  service),  and  if  he  thus  cannot  sell  how  can 
he  buy?  And  how  can  we  say  we  do  produce 
enough  for  all  when  the  "all"  haven't  that 
"  enough  "?  To  say  we  can  produce  —  that's 
different. 

It  does  not  benefit  manufacturers  as  a 
whole  when,  in  consequence  of  labor-saving 
devices,  they  are  enabled  to  get  along  with 
less  workmen,  for  immediately  the  purchasing 
power  of  the  community  is  again  lessened,  to  a 
degree  equal  to,  if  not  greater  than,  the  reduc- 
tion in  selling  price.  There  is  merely  tempo- 
rary advantage  to  a  few  of  them.  Shortly 
they  discover  that  business  is  not  a  whit  more 


UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY      39 

profitable  —  in  fact,  less  so  than  ever  before. 
Barring  certain  exceptions,  the  majority  of 
business  men  to-day  will  tell  you  that  they  do 
not  and  cannot  "  make  money  "  as  in  times 
past.  Some  houses  have  larger  capital  and 
greater  volume  of  business,  and  yet  make  rel- 
atively less  than  ever  before ;  a  great  many 
are  beginning  to  say  that  they  no  longer  ex- 
pect to  make  more  than  a  living  —  that  they 
are  fortunate  if  they  do  that  well ;  a  large 
number  of  business  houses  are  existing  by 
virtue  of  the  money  they  once  made  and  the 
capital  they  then  accumulated,  rather  than 
any  money  or  capital  thay  are  now  making 
or  accumulating.  As  business  becomes  less 
profitable,  those  who  are  wealthy  and  can  do 
so  begin  to  withdraw  from  active  business, 
and  endeavor  to  invest  their  money  so  that 
it  will  yield  a  net  income  in  the  form  of  in- 
terest—  by  becoming  real-estate  men,  land- 
lords, bankers,  money-lenders,  and  the  like, 
or  speculators.  Profit  in  the  usual  sense  is 
largely  become  a  fiction.  Gross  profit  is  not 
net  profit.  Gross  profit  in  legitimate  business 
is  mostly  absorbed  by  expense,  in  the  form  of 
interest,  rent,  selling  expense,  and  the  other 
costs  of  carrying  on  business. 

What  is  the  difficulty  here?  What  is  the 
cause  of  this?  Isn't  it  strange  that  business 
men,  as  the  class  who,  above  all  others,  ought 
to  know  best,  are  the  most  ignorant?  Philos- 
ophers have  said  that  business  men  lare  more 


4o      UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY 

ignorant  than  any  other  class  of  the  social  laws 
concerning  themselves.  Do  we  often  find  a 
business  man  who  understands,  like  the  social 
philosopher  or  the  hitherto  much-reviled  So- 
cialist—  who  understands  that,  fundamen- 
tally, his  business  prosperity  is  inseparably 
dependent  upon  the  prosperity  of  all  other 
business  men,  and,  in  turn,  the  prosperity  of 
business  men  as  a  whole  upon  the  prosperity 
of  the  community  as  a  whole,  including  the 
very  least  and  humblest? 

It  is  not  the  purpose  here  to  amplify  this 
proposition  by  way  of  extensive  demonstra- 
tion. 

Lack  of  balance  is  not  remedied  by  the 
discharge  of  working-men  ;  it  is  not  remedied 
by  the  improved  or  more  economical  methods 
of  production.  It  is  caused,  fundamentally, 
by  the  vast  disproportion  between  the  le- 
gitimate cost  of  production  and  the  purchas- 
ing power  of  the  community — between  the 
amount  paid  out  into  the  community  in  pro- 
ducing a  given  article  or  service,  and  the 
amount  required  to  buy  it  back. 

The  producer,  as  stated  before,  is  likewise 
the  consumer.  What  he  receives  for  his  pro- 
duct or  service  as  a  producer  is  the  measure 
of  his  purchasing  power  as  a  consumer.  If 
that  purchasing  power -is  not  nearly  sufficient 
to  buy  back  the  identical  thing  or  service  he 
produced,  or  its  equivalent,  the  balance  is  de- 
stroyed between  Production  and  Consumption 


UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY     41 


—  between  "cost  of  production"  and  "pur- 
chasing power."  The  market,  the  community 
into  which  the  business  system  must  sell  its 
goods,  does  not  possess  the  purchasing  power 
to  buy  them  all,  because  the  price  which  is 
asked  far  exceeds  the  amount  originally  paid 
into  the  community  in  producing  the  goods. 
The  community  can  derive  purchasing  power 
only  from  that  money  or  credit  which  it  re- 
ceives in  payment  for  the  services  it  produced 
or  rendered. 

Or,  to  state  it  another  way,  the  commu- 
nity, in  order  to  buy  back  what  it  originally 
produced,  must  work  two  or  three  times  as 
many  days  in  obtaining  the  purchasing  power, 
the  money,  so  to  do  —  two  or  three  times  as 
many  days  as  it  took  to  originally  produce 
the  things  it  now  buys.  Having  done  this 
once,  for  example,  its  purchasing  power  there- 
upon ceases  for  the  time  being.  The  goods 
it  thus  produced  in  order  to  obtain  this  pur- 
chasing power  exceed,  by  far,  the  goods  it 
has  just  bought  —  leaving,  thus,  surplus  goods 
without  corresponding  surplus  of  purchasing 
power.  The  goods  just  bought  are  in  due 
time  consumed,  and  the  community  then 
wishes  further  goods,  to  obtain  which  it  must 
first  earn  further  purchasing  power,  now  hav- 
ing none.  To  do  that  it  is  required  to  work 
or  produce,  and  sell  that  product  or  service. 
It  is  ready  to  do  so,  and  attempts  to  do  so, 
but  it  cannot.     It  cannot  sell,  for  trie  reason 


42      UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY 


L_ 


that  there  is  left  over  from  its  previous  efforts 
a  surplus  stock  of  goods  not  yet  sold  because 
it  could  not  previously  buy  them.  Until  that 
is  sold,  the  community  cannot  sell  its  further 
labor,  for  it  can  sell  it  only  to  those  who  al- 
ready have  this  stock  of  goods  and  therefore 
do  not  need  the  labor.  At  the  same  time, 
those  who  have  this  stock  can  sell  it  only  to 
this  given  community  .which  now  is  unable  to 
buy  it.  Lack  of  balance  ensues.  A  deadlock 
has  taken  place.      What  a  shrieking  farce! 

The  wise  business  man  contemplates  this 
with  wrinkled  brow,  and  runs  his  fingers 
through  his  hair.  He  cries  out,  Over-pro- 
duction—  that's  all!  He  can  see  nothing- 
else —  and  begins  to  talk  a  lot  of  trash.  His 
own  working-men,  the  Socialist  or  other  crank 
(?)  whom  he  calls  a  fool,  often  know  better 
than  he  does  what  the  real  trouble  is.  All 
honor  to  the  fool  then! 

(It  is  well  to  state  here  this  incontrovertible 
fact :  the  philosophies  of  Socialism  in  particu- 
lar are  not  the  arbitrary  creation  of  the  social 
philosopher,  but  are  a  scientific,  logical  deduc- 
tion from  the  operation  of  law  as  it  affects  our 
industrial  affairs.  Errors  and  differences  of 
interpretation  are  present,  but  the  main  facts 
are  incontestable.  No  one's  saying  so,  but 
their  being  so,  makes  this  true.) 

Returning  to  our  practical  object,  the  seek- 
ing of  an  avenue  of  remedy,  it  is  obvious  that 
it  must  take  the  direction  of  eliminating  this 


UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY      43 

lack  of  balance.  It  must  operate  to  bring 
purchasing  price  nearer  to  productive  cost. 
it  must  make  a  man's  buying  power  more 
equal  to  his  selling  power.  Correctly  stated, 
it  must  serve  to  give  that  money  or  credit 
which  he  receives  when  selling  (his  service  or 
product)  the  power  to  buy  back  more  nearly 
the  equivalent  of  what  he  sells. 

As  a  seller  a  person  is  very  far  removed  from 
the  point  at  which  he  is  a  buyer.  Between 
the  two  points  a  great  load  of  extraneous  cost 
has  been  heaped  upon  the  article,  until,  when 
it  comes  back  to  the  point  at  which  one  buys, 
the  price  is  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  com- 
munity's ability  to  buy.  Witness  the  example 
previously  given  as  to  the  farmer  who  sells  a 
bit  of  wool  and  finally  buys  a  piece  of  cloth. 
When  it  starts  out  from  him  it  represents  a 
dollar.  It  travels  so  far  around  and  through 
so  many  hands  that,  by  the  time  it  comes 
back  to  him  in  the  shape  of  cloth,  it  amounts 
to  $2.70.  If  the  original  wool  required  one 
day's  labor,  it  now  requires  him  to  perform 
one  and  seven  tenths  days'  additional  labor, 
on  top  of  the  dollar  he  originally  received, 
in  order  to  get  the  cloth  back.  Or,  in  other 
words,  he  is  obliged  to  pay  one  and  seven 
tenths  days'  labor,  or  $1.70,  for  the  turning 
of  this  one  dollar's  worth  of  wool  into  cloth. 
We  observe  that,  omitting  interest,  but  in- 
cluding the  manufacturer's  profit  or  margin, 
the  real  cost  of  converting  the  wool  into  cloth 


44  UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY 

was 45  cents.  If  the  farmer  were,  for  example, 
alongside  the  manufacturer's  establishment,  he 
could  have  sold  the  wool  direct  to  the  manu- 
facturer for  $1.00,  and  the  manufacturer  the 
cloth  direct  to  the  farmer  for  $1.45,  or  at 
most  for  $1.55,  and  no  harm  done.  But  be- 
cause they  are  not  in  just  that  position  to  each 
other,  the  farmer  is  obliged  to  pay  $1.25  more 
for  that  reason  alone;  that  is,  he  pays  $1.00 
for  the  wool  in  the  goods,  45  cents  for  convert- 
ing the  wool  into  cloth,  and  $1.25  because  he 
happens  to  be  one  hundred  or  one  thousand 
miles  away  from  the  point  of  manufacture. 
That  looks  as  absurd  as  if  I  went  to  a  store 
to  buy  a  coat  for  $1.45  and  then  had  to  pay 
$1.25  for  the  delivery  of  it  to  my  home. 

Industrial  activities  are  of  two  kinds — pro- 
ductive and  distributive.     The  $1.00  and  the 

45  cents  went  to  the  productive,  the  $1.25  to 
the  distributive  division.  Admitting,  as  is  a 
fact,  that  a  distributive  system  must  be  had, 
isn't  its  cost,  which  is,  relatively,  a  dead  ex- 
pense upon  the  nation  —  isn't  the  cost  wholly 
out  of  all  proportion?  There  is  waste  and 
over-cost  in  the  productive  division,  without  a 
doubt,  but  nothing  as  compared  with  the  waste 
or  over-cost  of  the  distributive  division. 

Hitherto  no  distinct  treatment  of  this  cost, 
the  distributive  as  distinguished  from  the  pro- 
ductive, has  been  made.  Social  philosophies 
constantly  advert  to  the  waste  of  produc- 
tion, but  do  not  clearly  point  out  that  they 


UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY     45 

really  mean,  in  the  main,  the  waste  of  distri- 
bution. 

Before  passing,  let  us  observe  somewhat 
further  how  the  cost  of  distribution  affects 
"purchasing  power."  First,  let  it  be  said 
that  the  cost  of  "production,  no  matter  how 
great,  does  not  affect  or  destroy  purchasing 
power,  so  far  as  that  cost  is  legitimate,  that 
is,  is  paid  out  to  the  employees  or  others  for 
real  service  of  some  kind.  For  example,  if 
workmen  in  common  were  to  get  ten  times 
the  amount  of  wages  now  prevailing,  the  price 
of  goods  would  advance  to  the  same  degree  ; 
and  while  their  purchasing  power  is  nominally 
ten  times  as  great  in  dollars  and  cents,  it 
would  in  fact  be  only  the  same,  relatively,  as 
before.  They  could  buy  back  no  more  and 
no  less  of  their  product  than  before.  It  is 
not  the  amount  of  the  wage  in  itself,  or  the 
price  in  itself  of  an  article,  that  affects  mat- 
ters, but  the  relativity  or  proportio?i  of  the  one 
to  the  other.  If,  however,  the  cost  of  dis- 
tribution were  lessened  by  25  per  cent,  while 
wages  remain  the  same,  the  wage  would  pur- 
chase 25  per  cent,  more  than  before,  and  thus 
the  result  would  be  equivalent  to  a  universal 
advance  of  wages  or  income  by  25  per  cent. 
This  is  the  first  practical  way  to  advance 
wages. 

The  income  of  the  farmer — that  is,  the 
price  he  receives  for  his  products  —  stands 
very  nearly  in  the  same  relation  to  the  ques- 


46      UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY 


tion  as  do  the  working-men's  wages.  The  re- 
marks about  the  working-men's  wages  may, 
therefore,  apply  almost  equally  to  the  wages 
of  the  farmers,  the  price  of  farm  products. 

Waste  in  production  is  as  yet  no  serious 
evil.  If  I  operate  a  factory  wherein,  for  any 
reason,  say  because  of  hand  labor,  the  product 
costs  more  than  if  made  by  machinery,  it  is 
the  source  of  no  evil,  inasmuch  as  the  amount 
of  the  cost,  whatever  it  is,  has  been  paid  into 
the  community  through  the  employees,  and 
thus  the  community  is  able  to  buy  it  back. 
Were  machinery  employed,  there  would  have 
been  as  much  less  paid  into  the  community 
as  the  cost,  and  therefore  the  selling  price,  of 
the  goods  is  less.  The  problem  of  produc- 
tion per  se  is,  therefore,  a  wholly  subordinate 
one  for  present  purposes.  So  long  as  present 
distributive  arrangements  endure,  no  tamper- 
ing with  productive  arrangements  can  yield 
any  substantial  benefit.  In  fact,  it  yields 
evil.  It  intensifies  evils.  The  economizing 
of  production  is  the  direct  cause  of  the  num- 
ber of  unemployed.  That  condition  is  an  in- 
tensification of  the  evil  which  we  have  termed 
"  lack  of  balance." 

To  make  the  point  more  clear,  that  tam- 
pering with  productive  arrangements  exclu- 
sively yields  no  full  solution,  suppose  the  bal- 
ance between  productive  cost  and  purchasing 
power  were  restored  in  the  productive  divi- 
sion.    Suppose  every  unemployed  man  were 


UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY     47 

given  work,  and  that  then  all  manufactories 
were  run  even  at  cost,  not  even  interest  being 
figured  in.  The  selling  prices  of  the  manu- 
facturer remaining  the  same,  and  nothing  but 
legitimate  employment  being  paid  for,  the 
employees  would  then  receive  a  trifle  more 
wages — perhaps  10  per  cent.,  perhaps  15  per 
cent.  In  consequence  of  the  unprofitableness 
of  a  large  number  of  institutions  the  advance 
in  wages  would  average,  very  likely,  less  than 
10  per  cent.  The  goods  manufactured  would 
thereupon  pass  through  the  Distributive  Sys- 
tem as  before,  and  all  the  costs  of  that  system 
would  in  no  way  have  been  lessened.  Hence, 
the  manufacturer's  price  having  remained  the 
same,  the  retail  selling  price  would  remain 
the  same.  The  net  result  would  be  confined 
solely  to  the  working-men,  include  no  one 
else,  and  upon  them  it  would  have  bestowed 
a  benefit  by  increasing  their  purchasing  power 
10  per  cent.  But  the  lack  of  balance  would 
still  be  very  far  from  being  remedied,  for  that 
is  due  to  the  principle  of  interest  and  the  un- 
due cost  of  distribution. 

But  even  this  much  is  impracticable  of  ac- 
complishment, because  the  method  is  wholly 
impracticable.  When  the  distributive  waste 
has  been  eliminated,  then,  and  then  only,  will 
the  problem  of  productive  waste  be  in  order 
to  any  substantial  degree.  The  raising  of 
wages  and  shortening  of  labor  hours  is  not 
possible  now  to  any  substantial  degree.    That 


48      UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY 

cannot  be  dealt  with  until  such  a  time  when 
the  commercial  character  of  the  industrial 
system  has  been  replaced  by  a  system  which 
has  the  practical  power  and  ability  and  the 
organized  coordination  to  apportion  the  total 
amount  of  labor  equitably  among  the  total 
number  of  workers.  Practically  prior  to  this 
we  must  solve  the  problem  of  bringing  pur- 
chasing price  nearer  to  productive  cost.  Ob- 
viously this  problem  lies  most  immediately  in 
the  distributive  division.  In  that  division  is 
the  place  where  it  is  most  practicable  and 
easy  to  apply  the  remedy,  where  the  largest 
degree  of  cure  will  be  obtainable,  and  where 
the  cure  will  permeate  the  entire  system  and 
affect  impartially  the  whole  people.  The  dis- 
tributive avenues  are  the  arteries  of  the  nation 
through  which  the  blood  flows,  and  there  is 
the  place  into  which  to  inject  the  remedy. 
The  heart,  the  productive  division,  is  in  no 
very  bad  condition,  save  as  affected  by  the 
arterial,  the  distributive  division.  The  dis- 
ease is  functional,  therefore,  not  organic. 

The  productive  division  does  not  dominate 
the  distributive.  An  institution  along  purely 
productive  lines  would,  therefore,  be  very 
limited  in  influence ;  more  especially  because 
it  could  have  no  influence  outside  of  the  nar- 
row line  of  goods  it  is  confined  to.  It  would 
be  constantly  under  the  domination  of  the 
distributive  system.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is 
the  distributive  division  which  dominates  the 


UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY      49 


entire  industrial  system.  An  institution  in  this 
division  might  easily  become  so  extensive,  as 
to  area  and  as  to  variety  of  goods  it  handles, 
as  to  powerfully  influence  the  whole  system 
of  industry,  including  the  productive  division. 
So,  then,  how  does  the  cost  of  distribution 
affect  purchasing  power?  We  observe  in  the 
example  previously  given  that  the  $2.70  worth 
of  cloth  consists  of  the  following  items : 


Material  and  labor  —  legitimate,  direct  cost  of 
production — being  the  original  wool  plus 

manufacturing  expense $1-45 

Total  interest 51)  Cost  of  distribu- 

Total  expense  and  profit,   .74  )      tion  to  and  fro,  $1.25 

J  $2.70 

The  question  is,  How  much  of  this  $2.70 
has  been  paid  out  in  such  a  way  as  to  confer 
purchasing  power,  and  how  much  is  not  pur- 
chasing power? 

First,  what  is  purchasing  power,  what  con- 
stitutes purchasing  power?  In  answering  this 
we  treat  "money  "  and  "credit"  as  one  and 
the  same  thing. 

Purchasing  power  is  that  money  which, 
being  received  for  product  or  service,  is  again 
used  within  reasonable  time  by  the  recipient 
in  the  purchase  of  service  or  things  for  his 
use  or  consumption.  Thus  the  money  paid 
for  any  useful  service,  no  matter  what  its 
nature,  will  constitute  purchasing  power,  will 


5o      UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY 

be  spent  and  respent  in  making  purchases. 
It  ebbs  and  flows,  circulates  back  and  forth, 
performs  exchanges  of  product  and  service 
for  product  and  service.  It  is  always  mov- 
ing, circulating,  never  stationary  to  any  large 
degree  or  length  of  time.  (A  more  amplified 
definition  might  be  given,  but  this  is  sufficient 
here.)  Whatever  money  or  credit  that  does 
not  do  this  is,  conversely,  not  purchasing 
power  in  the  required  manner.  Thus  that 
proportion  of  interest,  profit,  or  wealth  which 
flows  in  one  direction  and  does  not  success- 
ively return,  that  which  accumulates  and  con- 
centrates itself  into  the  hands  of  persons  who 
cannot  or  do  not  spend  it  in  order  to  co?isame 
7uhat  it  buys,  who  do  not  buy  back  the  pro- 
duct in  whose  cost  this  money  or  expense  has 
entered  —  that  is  idle  or  stationary  wealth; 
that  is  not  purchasing  power  in  the  active 
sense  implied  in  this  question. 

It  has  been  shown,  by  the  illustration  re- 
lating to  the  concentration  of  wealth  through 
the  instrumentality  of  interest,  where  this  loss 
of  purchasing  power  goes  to.  The  interest 
received  by  the  recipient  of  small  income  is 
generally  spent  and  consumed.  But  the  in- 
terest received  by  the  very  wealthy,  to  the 
extent  it  is  not  consumed  by  them,  no  matter 
how  otherwise  invested,  does  not  continue  to 
perform  purchasing  power.  It  becomes  sta- 
tionary wealth,  and,  what  is  worse,  through 
being  a  non-consuming  thing  it  perpetually 


UNIVERSAL   PROSPERITY      51 


draws  to  itself  further  wealth  through  interest. 
All  stationary  wealth  is,  virtually,  purchasing 
power  withdrawn  from  circulation  —  with- 
drawn from  the  avenues  in  which  it  -  ras  in- 
tended to  serve  the  purposes  of  consumption, 
and  not  of  accumulation  ;  it  has  left  the  return 
act  of  the  exchange  function  unaccomplished. 
(Again  we  must  omit  further  amplification.) 

All  that  portion  of  the  $2.70,  therefore, 
which  goes  into  active  use  —  that  is  to  say, 
which  ebbs  and  flows,  and  does  not  run  in 
one  direction  solely  —  is  purchasing  power; 
the  rest  is  not.  Thus  the  $1.45  is  purchasing 
power ;  the  51  cents  interest  is  not,  and  a  con- 
siderable portion  of  the  74  cents  distributive 
cost  is  not.  It  is  clear  that  not  less  than  70 
cents  of  the  $2.70  lacks  the  required  charac- 
ter of  purchasing  power.  Thus  the  commu- 
nity as  a  whole  receives  but  $2.00  with  which 
to  buy  back  the  $2.70  article.  Its  purchasing 
power  is  70  cents  short.  Its  purchasing  power 
is  70  cents  short  each  time  it  spends  $2.70, 
for  example.  When  it  has  done  this  four 
times  there  ensues  a  deadlock,  that  is  to  say, 
a  panic  or  business  depression.  Then  it  shifts 
and  squirms  about,  makes  bankruptcies,  etc., 
until  it  gets  a  little  wind,  starts  off  again,  and 
finally  succeeds  in  doing  the  same  somersault 
over  again,  each  time  getting  more  "in  the 
hole  "  than  upon  the  previous  occasion.  Each 
time  the  grip  of  Interest  takes  a  fresh  hold 
and  becomes  a  little  tighter. 


52      UNIVERSAL   PROSPERITY 

Interest  is,  therefore,  evil,  because,  as  ob- 
served, it  destroys  the  balance  between  pro- 
duction and  the  power  of  the  community  to 
purchase  or  consume  that  production.  As 
industrial  life  has  become  more  and  more 
differentiated  —  in  other  words,  as  each  pro- 
ducer or  worker  produces  less  and  less  for 
his  own  direct  consumption,  requiring,  there- 
fore, to  exchange  his  product  for  that  of  a 
constantly  greater  number  of  his  fellow-men 
—  the  use  and  need  of  money  as  an  instru- 
mentality with  which  to  perform  these  many 
exchanges  becomes  more  and  more  a  necessity, 
to  a  greater  and  ever  greater  extent.  The 
time  has  come  when  a  great  volume  of  that 
money-service  is  needed.  The  present  vol- 
ume is  so  small  in  proportion  to  the  require- 
ment, and  has  concentrated  itself  (through 
interest  mainly)  into  the  hands  of  so  small  and 
separate  a  class,  distinct  from  the  people  as  a 
whole,  that  this  class  is  able  to  dictate  terms 
inimical  in  the  highest  degree,  as  witnessed 
by  the  results  shown. 

The  expense  of  distribution,  other  than  in- 
terest— for  example,  the  item  of  74  cents  — 
is  as  wrong  scientifically  as  the  item  of  inter- 
est. It  is  not  so  seriously  evil,  however,  be- 
cause it  still  serves  to  create  purchasing  power. 
Its  evil  consists  in  the  undue  proportion  of 
specifically  productive  labor  it  necessitates 
to  satisfy  that  purchasing  power,  or,  in  philo- 
sophic terms,  to  support  these  non-producers. 


UNIVERSAL   PROSPERITY      53 

Interest  is  an  absolute  evil,  undue  cost  of 
distribution  a  relative  evil.  Both  must  be 
eliminated.  It  should  be  apparent  without 
demonstration  that  in  so  far  as  a  remedy  elim- 
inates interest  it  can  do  no  harm,  not  even 
immediate ;  also,  in  so  far  as  it  reduces  the 
cost  of  distribution,  and  thus  brings  each  per- 
son's buying  and  selling  ability  into  proper 
coordination,  it  can  work  no  harm  to  those 
it  displaces  in  the  distributive  division.  It 
will  do  no  harm,  inflict  no  hardship,  for  the 
reason  that  it  establishes  universal  prosperity 
permanently,  thus  removing  all  limit  to  the 
productive  field,  manufacturing  or  agricul- 
tural ;  will  stimulate,  in  fact,  these  divisions, 
and  thus  gradually  open  up  avenues  of  pro- 
ductive employment  for  those  now  in  the 
Distributive  System,  inevitably,  as  fast  as  it 
displaces  them. 

As  the  remedy,  the  new  Distributive  Sys- 
tem, grows  in  influence  and  removes  the  arti- 
ficial obstructions,  it  tends  to  give  to  every 
producer  virtually  his  own  product  to  con- 
sume— no  more  and  no  less.  No  matter  how 
much  or  little  any  one  produces,  he  gets  it  all, 
and  must  get  it  all.  It  will  obviate  the  state 
of  a  man  producing  a  given  amount  and  not 
getting  back  but  a  fraction  of  its  equivalent. 
Conversely,  it  must  obviate  the  other  extreme, 
namely,  that  of  a  person  being  paid  to  an  ex- 
tent far  greater  than  he  produces  or  properly 
merits. 


54      UNIVERSAL   PROSPERITY 


If  one  accumulates  or  does  not  consume 
all  he  produces,  well  and  good,  so  it  have  no 
tendency  or  power  to  deprive  any  one  else 
of  that  which  the  other  produces,  or  in  any 
manner  to  enslave  the  latter  through  want, 
or  the  fear  of  want. 


THE    PLAN  — BY   WAY   OF    ILLUS- 
TRATION 

IT  is  a  logical  deduction  from  what  has 
gone  before  that  the  first  and  most  prac- 
tical thing  in  order  is  to  devise  a  distributive 
agency  or  institution.  Being  a  distributive 
institution  primarily  prevents  it  in  no  manner 
from  being  a  productive  one  where  it  finds 
opportune  avenue  or  necessity,  and  in  due 
time  and  order. 

For  obvious  reasons  it  cannot  be  a  govern- 
mental institution.  It  does  not  follow,  how- 
ever, that  it  cannot  just  as  well  be  as  public 
in  its  benefits  as  if  it  were.  Nor  does  it  fol- 
low that  it  cannot  just  as  easily  become  co- 
extensive with  the  industrial  system  in  time. 

With  many  people  it  would  be  even  more 
acceptable,  in  the  present  state  of  understand- 
ing, if  the  institution  were  not  a  governmental 
one.  In  fact,  it  would  be  an  advantage  to 
the  institution,  for  then  there  would  be  no 
55 


56      UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY 

constitutional  bars  to  its  good  activities,  and 
no  fixed  and  inflexible  laws  defining  what  it 
shall  and  shall  not  do,  without  regard  to  the 
benefit  of  the  services  which  they  forbid  it 
to  perform.  One  of  the  most  potent  proofs 
in  support  of  this  proposition  lies  in  the  ad- 
mitted fact  that  the  majority  of  the  people  (if 
not  nine  tenths  of  them)  are  desirous  that  the 
Post-office  Department  be  extended  to  take  in 
at  least  the  Express, Telegraph,  and  Telephone 
service,  and  yet  it  is  not  done.  The  people 
are  ready  to  vote  upon  it,  and  the  proposi- 
tion if  voted  upon  would  carry  overwhelm- 
ingly ;  yet  no  vote  is  taken.  Not  only  that, 
but  we  cannot  vote  even  if  we  want  to.  In 
the  name  of  heaven,  isn't  this  a  most  anoma- 
lous position  for  a  democratic  nation  ?  We 
Americans  are  individually  tolerably  intelligent 
people,  but  collectively  we  are  the  stupidest 
people  on  the  face  of  the  globe,  relative  to 
our  pretensions  and  capacities. 

We  observe  the  post-office  cannot  extend 
its  service.  Suppose  a  group  of  private  per- 
sons or  an  association  of  some  kind  were  run- 
ning the  post-office  just  as  it  is  run  now,  viz., 
at  cost  and  for  the  impartial  public  benefit. 
Suppose  they  resolved  to  advance  the  third- 
class  or  parcels  limit  from  four  pounds  to  ten 
pounds,  would  a  single  voice  say  nay  ?  And 
suppose  later  they  were  to  advance  it  to  one 
hundred  pounds,  who  would  say  they  had  no 
right  to  do  so  ?     And  who,  moreover,  would 


UNIVERSAL   PROSPERITY      57 


refrain  from  patronizing  them  ?  Yet  the  post- 
office  cannot  do  this. 

The  people  own  the  post-office.  If  the 
people  want  the  postal  service  extended,  and 
the  people  are  the  government,  why  don't  we 
go  on,  then,  and  exercise  our  right  to  extend 
it? 

Now  it  is  certainly  plain  that  a  govern- 
mental institution  for  carrying  out  our  pres- 
ent purposes  is  precisely  what  we  do  not 
want.  Since  private  institutions  have  vastly 
more  liberty  and  flexibility  than  a  govern- 
mental one,  therefore  we  must  establish  an 
institution  which  has  all  the  liberty,  flexibility, 
and  power  of  a  private  one,  plus,  if  possible, 
the  added  advantages  of  being  public  in  its 
benefits.  We  must  combine  the  various  ad- 
vantages of  both  the  private  and  the  public 
institution,  and  avoid  the  disadvantages  of 
both.  It  will  be  seen  that  it  is  easier  to  do 
this  than  it  would  be  to  establish  purely  the 
one  or  the  other. 

Now,  then,  bearing  in  mind  all  that  has 
gone  before,  suppose  an  institution  embody- 
ing the  precise  character  and  principles  of 
the  post-office  (minus  its  inflexibility)  were  in 
existence,  owned  by  no  matter  whom.  Sup- 
pose that  instead  of  carrying  letters  it  bought 
and  sold  goods,  performing  the  service  at  as 
near  cost  as  it  could  do  so  safely.  In  other 
words,  suppose  the  post-office  in  this  city  were 
a  store — a  big  store — wherein  are -sold  dry 


58      UNIVERSAL   PROSPERITY 


goods,  clothing,  shoes,  groceries,  provisions, 
etc.  Suppose  it  bought  these  goods  just  the 
same  as  any  private  store  buys  them  —  wher- 
ever it  could  get  them  cheapest — and  then 
sold  them  to  you  over  the  counter  at  a  price 
merely  sufficient  to  cover  the  cost  to  it  of  per- 
forming this  service,  plus  cost  of  extending 
its  functions  from  time  to  time.  Would  such 
an  institution,  once  started,  ever  lack  for  sup- 
port ?  Could  you,  in  fact,  drive  people  away 
from  dealing  with  it  ? 

Suppose  it  started  in  just  one  city — any 
big  city — how  long  would  it  be  before  hun- 
dreds and  thousands  of  branches  would  be 
established  in  all  parts  of  the  country  ? 

Or,  to  make  the  suggestion  another  way : 
We  have  an  immense  department  store  in 
this  city.  Suppose  this  house,  being  debt-free, 
should  suddenly  determine  to  donate  (or  sell) 
for  public  purposes  its  entire  capital,  stock  of 
goods,  and  good-will,  to  five  or  seven  trustees, 
who  might  be,  possibly,  the  very  same  per- 
sons who  are  now  the  directors.  Suppose 
these  trustees,  without  a  moment's  stoppage 
of  business,  should  go  right  on  with  the  busi- 
ness as  before,  charging  no  expense  in  the 
shape  of  interest  (having  now  none  to  pay), 
charging  only  sufficient  to  cover  the  legitimate 
expense  of  the  business,  plus  a  certain  fraction 
for  the  purpose  of  enlarging  the  establishment 
and  installing  branches  as  soon  as  the  volume 
and  character  of  business  demanded.     Their 


UNIVERSAL   PROSPERITY     .59 

selling  price  would  then  be  the  same  as  in 
the  case  of  the  previous  illustration.  Let  it 
be  understood  that  there  is  no  rule  whatever 
limiting  the  avenues  in  which  this  institution 
is  to  operate,  its  entire  constitution  consisting 
of  the  simple  provision  "  that  it  shall  exercise 
every  lawful  expedient  or  activity  within  its 
power,  now  and  hereafter,  to  bring  about  the 
nearest  balance  it  possibly  can  between  legiti- 
mate '  productive  cost '  and  the  '  purchasing 
power'  of  the  people  —  in  the  general  sense 
implied  in  the  preceding  chapter;  to  which 
end  it  shall  be  proper  for  it  to  engage  in  any 
distributive  or  productive  business  in  its  wish 
and  at  its  command ;  and  that  it  shall  be 
further  proper  for  it  to  engage  in  any  other 
service  whatsoever  in  which  it  can  be  of  any 
public  benefit." 

It  is  almost  idle  to  ask,  Would  that  institu- 
tion be  a  success?  Once  started  it  could  no 
more  be  stopped  than  we  could  stop  the  pro- 
cess of  the  suns.  Is  there  any  evil,  any  sore, 
any  wrong,  anywhere  in  the  industrial  system, 
that  it  would  not  in  due  and  rapid  course 
reach  as  certainly  as  it  exists  ? 


VI 


CAPITAL  AND  CIRCULATING 
MEDIUM 

NOW  it  will  be  plain  to  those  who  have 
carefully  followed  all  the  premises  lead- 
ing up  to  the  illustration  in  the  previous  chap- 
ter that,  granted  the  institution  is  fairly  and 
properly  launched,  it  will,  on  the  one  hand, 
be  automatically  obedient  to  all  the  require- 
ments pointed  out  as  essential,  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  be  able  to  defy  the  competition, 
if  we  may  so  term  it,  of  the  combined  money- 
power  of  the  world,  let  alone  of  this  nation. 
No  power  that  can  in  reason  be  devised  or 
imagined  would  be  able  to  destroy  it.  It  can 
be  destroyed  only  by  itself.  In  so  far  as  it 
is  not  obedient  to  the  law  of  its  being  it  will 
die,  as  it  ought  then  to  die ;  in  so  far  as  it  is 
thus  obedient  it  will  live,  as  it  ought  then  to 
live. 

And  if,  for  the  reason  named,  it  should  die, 
it  will  inevitably  rise  again,  like  the  phenix, 
from  its  own  ashes. 

Go 


UNIVERSAL   PROSPERITY     61 

But  it  is  idle  to  talk  of  its  dying.  The  im- 
portant point  is,  that  it  be  endowed,  not  so 
much  with  rules  and  laws,  as  with  freedom 
from  restrictive  rules  and  laws ;  and  with  ad- 
ministrators of  that  character  and  qualifica- 
tion who  can  be  counted  upon  to  carry  on 
the  institution,  obedient  in  the  fullest  possible 
degree  to  its  purposes ;  who  can  be  .trusted 
to  vary  and  adapt  their  methods  and  rules  to 
the  ever  varying  and  changing  requirements 
which  from  time  to  time  take  place. 

It  remains  to  point  out  certain  practical 
features  necessary  to  this  institution,  and  a 
precise  modus  operandi  of  putting  it  into 
operation. 

The  first  essentials  are  Capital  and  Cir- 
culating Medium.  Capital  and  Circulating 
Medium  are  two  different  things.  Money  is 
capital,  but  money  is  capital  only  because  of 
the  things  it  will  buy.  These  "  things  "  are 
the  real  capital,  and  money  is  simply  the  rep- 
resentative of  them,  a  certificate  certifying  to 
that  fact.  Having  the  "  things "  is  better 
than  having  the  "representative"  —  we  can- 
not eat,  live  in,  and  wear  the  representative ; 
we  can  the  "  things."  Let  that  be  borne  in 
mind  clearly,  for  we  have  become  very  much 
obfuscated  of  late  regarding  money.  Money 
is  properly  only  a  tool,  purely  and  simply, 
and  any  other  tool  that  will  do  precisely  the 
same  work  is  precisely  as  good. 

Circulating   Medium :    money   is  a  circu- 


62      UNIVERSAL   PROSPERITY 

lating  medium.  I  can  give  no  simpler  idea 
of  its  character  and  quality  as  such  than  to 
say  it  is  a  "  substitute  for  bookkeeping."  Of 
course  it  has  other  features,  collateral  or  sub- 
ordinate, but  of  no  importance  here  except, 
as  will  be  seen  later,  that  the  circulating 
medium  of  this  institution  must  of  necessity 
be  absolutely  without  any  feature  other  than 
this  single  essential  one,  "  to  serve  as  a  sub- 
stitute for  bookkeeping." 

So,  if  bookkeeping  and  money  are  tools  of 
like  instrumentality,  why  not  use  bookkeeping, 
then,  not  only  as  now  used,  but  in  every  pos- 
sible manner,  direction,  and  purpose  ?  And 
inasmuch  as  money,  in  the  ordinary  under- 
standing, and  according  to  the  interpretation 
of  bankers  and  money-mongers,  is  a  thing 
other  than  bookkeeping,  and  is  more  inimical 
to  industrial  well-being  than  fire,  we  do  not 
want  it  at  all  except  in  a  limited  way,  as  will 
be  indicated. 

Bookkeeping  is  simply  a  memorandum.  If 
I  buy  something  of  a  merchant  he  makes  a 
memorandum  of  that  fact  on  his  books,  and 
when  I  pay  or  render  an  equivalent  he  makes 
another  memorandum — that's  bookkeeping. 
If  in  the  first  place  I  pay  him  the  money,  he 
doesn't  make  a  memorandum  as  concerning 
me  personally,  and  the  money  is  thus  a  sub- 
stitute for  the  bookkeeping.  It  is  only  a 
matter  of  convenience  or  expediency  as  to 
whether  the  money  is  or  is  not  used — hav- 


UNIVERSAL   PROSPERITY     63 


ing  no  concern  whatever  with  the  substance 
of  which  the  money  is  made  further  than  that 
its  certification  is  genuine.  Now  if,  when  I 
first  bought  of  him,  I  brought  a  piece  of 
paper  from  John  Smith,  upon  which  was 
stated  that  said  Smith  owed  me  so  and  so 
much,  I  would,  if  agreeable,  tender  that  in- 
stead of  money,  and,  it  being  accepted,  the 
bit  of  paper  and  the  words  and  the  signature 
upon  it  would,  so  far  as  I  am  concerned,  have 
performed  all  the  service  which  money  would 
have  performed  in  the  same  place.  In  the 
same  manner,  there  would  have  been  no  con- 
cern with  other  than  the  matter  of  expediency 
and  genuineness. 

It  will  be  seen,  therefore,  that  there  are 
many  ways  of  substituting  and  assisting  book- 
keeping. An  entry  upon  the  books,  a  de- 
mand note,  demand  draft,  voucher,  due-bill, 
or  any  other  form  of  memorandum  or  certifi- 
cate, portable  or  stationary,  are  all  substitutes 
for  and  assistants  to  bookkeeping.  It  is  in 
this  suggested  way,  then,  that  this  institution 
can  find  every  needful  instrument  as  circulat- 
ing mediums,  and  thus  avoid  the  evils  inher- 
ent in  the  use  of  present  so-called  money,  as 
well  as  be  relieved  of  the  enormous  cost  and 
barrier  to  obtaining  sufficient  present  money 
to  serve  us.  But,  as  stated,  even  if  we  could 
obtain,  without  cost  or  hindrance,  all  the 
United  States  money  we  wished,  we  can  have 
no  use  for  it  —  it  would  not  serve  our  pur- 


64      UNIVERSAL   PROSPERITY 

pose  under  prevailing  financial  evils.  That, 
farther  along. 

The  necessity  of  a  circulating  medium  as 
a  substitute  for  bookkeeping  will  be  obtained, 
then,  by  executing  on  our  own  part  some 
manner  of  non-counterfeitable  certificate,  and 
one  that  concerns  only  this  institution,  and 
does  not  pretend  to  be  money  in  the  money- 
mongers'  sense,  for  that  is  precisely  what  we 
do  not  want. 

The  next  and  final  necessity  of  a  circulat- 
ing medium  is  for  the  purpose  of  converting 
transactions  into  cash  transactions.  Now,  so 
far  as  we  choose  to  credit  a  person  upon  our 
books  and  charge  no  interest,  that  being  agree- 
able to  him,  there  is  no  occasion  for  anything 
further.  The  essence  of  a  cash  transaction 
in  business  is  not  because  of  the  medium 
being  money  pe7-  se.  It  is  because  of  the  pay 
or  equivalent  for  the  thing  sold  being  ren- 
dered in  something  which  can  be  at  once  used 
actively  by  the  seller,  for  further  purchase, 
or  extinguishment  of  debt.  It  is  merely  the 
present  arrangement  of  affairs  which  makes 
money  now  an  essential  to  a  cash  transaction, 
simply  because  money  is  now  the  only  thing- 
invested  with  purchasing  power  anywhere,  at 
any  time  —  with  immediate,  unquestioned,  and 
unconditioned  acceptability.  If  I  sell  a  man 
a  chair  for  $3.00,  and  happen  to  want  a  hat 
that  day,  intending  to  buy  it  of  Jones  at  the 
price  of  $3.00 — if  the   person   buying  the 


UNIVERSAL   PROSPERITY     65 

chair  pays  me  with  a  voucher  on  Jones,  the 
transaction  is  as  much  a  cash  transaction,  in 
essence,  as  if  he  paid  me  in  money.  That 
voucher  may  be  a  seven- cornered  piece  of 
paper  written  upon  in  yellow  ink,  or  it  may 
be  a  piece  of  a  barrel-hoop  with  some  hiero- 
glyphics upon  it :  it  doesn't  matter  to  me 
so  long  as  Jones  accepts  it  in  payment  for 
the  hat — save  as  concerns  the  matter  of  con- 
venience in  carrying  about  a  pocketful  of 
barrel-hoops. 

There  is,  then,  no  serious  obstacle  to  the 
obtainment  of  a  substitute  for  bookkeeping, 
so  far  as  needed,  and  to  the  obtainment  of 
the  essence  of  the  cash  transaction. 

The  sole  qualification  essential  to  both  pur- 
poses consists  in  the  known  and  unquestioned 
ability  of  the  person  or  institution  issuing  the 
voucher,  whatever  its  peculiar  form  or  word- 
ing, to  honor  it  upon  demand.  Referring 
to  the  institution  previously  illustrated,  and 
granting  that  the  institution  is  in  existence, 
there  is  no  question  that  its  voucher,  check, 
or  memorandum  will  be  received  anywhere,  at 
any  time,  for  the  purpose  of  any  legitimate  in- 
dustrial transaction.  And,  being  the  voucher 
of  this  institution  in  particular,  it  must  cer- 
tainly come  back,  somewhere,  at  some  time, 
to  its  point  of  issue.  That  is  precisely  what 
the  voucher  must  do  to  serve  our  purpose, 
and  therefore  one  that  will  not  do  that  cannot 
be  used.    Remember  the  definition  of  purchas- 


66      UNIVERSAL   PROSPERITY 


ing  power,  and  you  will  perceive  the  correct- 
ness of  the  proposition.  Observe,  further,  and 
in  particular,  that  United  States  money  will 
not  serve  the  purpose.  There  is  no  assurance, 
under  the  existing  financial  system,  of  its  com- 
ing back  to  balance  the  act  of  its  original  issue 
for  goods  or  service. 

Such  vouchers  or  credits  upon  our  books 
which  we  make  are  payments  for  goods  re- 
ceived from  the  payee,  conferring  upon  him 
purchasing  power ;  and  that  purchasing  power 
comes  back,  no  matter  where  or  how  long 
after,  and  receives  in  cancellation  the  goods 
originally  sold  to  us,  or  their  equivalent  in 
anything  else,  minus,  of  course,  the  cost  of 
our  doing  him  that  service — but  minus  noth- 
ing more. 


VII 
THE  PLAN  — IN  FACT 

IT  remains  to  point  out  the  initiatory  steps 
to  the  establishment  of  this  institution. 

It  is  obvious  that  no  serious  question  can 
be  made  against  the  proposed  institution.  It 
is  further  obvious  that  certainly  a  very  great 
number  of  people  will  assist  in  initiating  it,  if 
they  have  the  required  ability,  and  the  matter 
is  brought  to  their  attention.  This  for  the 
reason  that  in  their  own  minds,  and  to  their 
positive  conviction,  the  plan  will  be  what  it 
claims  to  be.  Suppose  it  be  asked  of  them 
to  bestow  assistance  to  the  extent,  say,  of  one 
dollar  each.  And  suppose  the  dollar  be  not 
even  a  contribution  or  donation,  but  that  they 
receive  in  return  the  proposed  vouchers  or 
certificates  in  the  amount  they  remit,  these 
vouchers  to  be  good  for  purchases,  by  mail 
or  otherwise,  as  soon  as  the  institution  throws 
open  its  doors. 

This  certainly  will  fall  within  the  ability  of 
a  great  number.  The  sum  so  obtained  may 
be  anywhere  from  $500,000  to  $2,000,000. 

This  would  then  furnish  the  sufficient  initi- 
67 


68      UNIVERSAL   PROSPERITY 

atory  capital,  especially  if  it  exceed  $500,000, 
which  it  probably  will,  judging  from  observa- 
tion of  the  hunger  with  which  millions  in  the 
reform  ranks,  to  speak  of  no  others,  are  look- 
ing and  hoping  for  a  solution. 

It  requires  no  vote  of  the  people,  no  legisla- 
tion, and  no  great  outlay,  to  start  the  project. 
Following  upon  a  due  period  of  publicity  and 
education,  if  the  required  proclamation  be 
made,  inviting  the  remittances  of  the  people, 
as  above  suggested,  and  this  announcement 
is  signed  by  five  or  seven  persons  known  for 
their  eminent  ability  and  trustworthiness,  not 
many  who  approve  the  scheme  and  can  do 
so  will  hesitate  to  intrust  one  dollar  to  the 
enterprise. 

The  response  will  be,  moreover,  generous 
for  the  reason  that  this  enterprise  conflicts 
with  no  other  reform  project  whatever,  but 
is  a  stimulant  and  essential  assistant  to  every 
one  of  them  that  is  good. 

Since  a  starting-point  must  be  made  some- 
where, since  some  one  individual  must  make 
the  first  move,  I  will  be  pardoned  for  assuming 
to  take  that  upon  myself  for  the  time  being. 

I  propose,  therefore,  that  a  small  society 
form  itself  in  this  city  (Cincinnati,  O.),  call- 
ing itself 

THE    UNITED    STATES    INDUSTRIAL    SOCIETY, 

whose  object  shall  be  the  advocacy  of  the 
plan,  and  assisting  to  put  it  into  practice. 


UNIVERSAL   PROSPERITY     69 

The  qualification  for  membership  to  be 
that  the  person  approves  the  plan  and  the 
premises  upon  which  it  is  based,  is  of  good 
character,  and  has  a  clear  understanding  of 
the  subject. 

At  this  writing  (the  plan  having  been  ex- 
pounded in  the  form  of  an  address)  this  Soci- 
ety has  already  been  inaugurated.  I  propose, 
further,  to  enlist  such  persons  of  eminent 
abilities  as  I  can  secure  through  correspon- 
dence or  otherwise  (submitting  to  them  proofs 
or  copies  of  the  book),  and  who  may  reside 
elsewhere,  and  attach  them  to  this  Society. 
There  may  be  anywhere  from  fifty  to  one 
hundred  or  more  of  such  persons.  Either 
number  will  suffice.  Quality  and  unity  of 
understanding  are  more  essential  than  quan- 
tity. 

When  the  proper  time  has  arrived — in  a 
year  or  more  after  the  origin  of  the  Society 
—  the  Society  as  thus  constituted  will  arrange 
for  the  election  of,  say,  five  persons  as  a  Board 
of  Trustees  and  Ministers  (or  Administrators) 
and  the  election  of  a  President  (inclusive  or 
additional)  of,  say, 

THE    UNITED    STATES    INDUSTRIAL    COMPANY. 

This  nomination  and  election  may  be  con- 
ducted by  mail  as  to  the  persons  not  resident 
in  this  city,  and  be  conducted,  of  course,  by 
the  Society  and  its  officers  who  are  resident 


7o      UNIVERSAL   PROSPERITY 


here.  The  detail  as  to  this  can  safely  rest 
with  the  Society. 

Observe  that  the  "  Society  "  and  the  "  Com- 
pany "  are  distinct. 

The  President  and  Ministers  elected  and 
duly  certified  to  and  installed  into  office  by 
the  Society  and  its  officers  will  then  organize 
and  make  the  "  proclamation "  above  sug- 
gested, specifying  the  name  and  address  of 
the  Treasurer  whom  they  or  the  President 
shall  appoint. 

Much  detail  must  here  be  omitted  as  super- 
fluous in  regard  to  the  exact  procedure  that 
shall  take  place  and  the  exact  form  that  the 
Administration  shall  take  on.  Since  it  will 
become  national  in  a  short  time,  it  may  be 
patterned  after  our  political  administration  at 
Washington  —  of  course  only  so  far  as  that 
shall  best  serve  the  purpose,  and  not  in  imi- 
tation merely.  This  detail  also  to  rest  with 
the  Society. 

It  should  be  understood  that  service  in  the 
"Company"  is  to  be  paid  for  at  such  rate  as 
may  be  deemed  proper,  with  the  end  in  view 
to  secure  the  very  best  executive  ability  for 
the  service  to  be  performed,  other  things 
being  satisfactory. 

The  "Society  "  is  to  constitute  for  a  limited 
time  the  legislature ;  in  other  words,  conduct 
the  legislative  government  of  the  "  Company" 
until  as  provided,  otherwise  farther  along — - 


UNIVERSAL   PROSPERITY      71 

the  Society  being  the  legislative  and  the 
Company  the  executive  branch  of  the  insti- 
tution. 

What  follows  now  is  solely  suggestive,  and 
is  subject  to  such  modifications  as  the  "  Soci- 
ety "  and  the  Administration  (of  the  Com- 
pany) may  from  time  to  time  see  fit,  and  is 
to  hold  good  only  as  will  appear  self-evi- 
dent. 

The  Administration  hereupon  will  decide 
what  city  to  make  its  headquarters,  and  the 
city  in  which  to  locate  its  first  main  store  or 
emporium.  Let  us  suppose  the  latter  be  Cin- 
cinnati. (It  may  be  Boston  or  San  Francisco, 
for  that  matter  —  it  is  only  a  question  of  ex- 
pediency.) The  President,  let  us  say,  appoints 
a  manager  for  Cincinnati  somewhat  after  the 
manner  in  which  a  postmaster  is  appointed, 
or  he  may  be  elected.  This  manager,  in  con- 
nection with  the  Administration,  thereupon 
fixes  upon  a  location  for,  say,  a  large  depart- 
ment store,  installing  a  new  store  or  buying 
out  an  existing  one.  He  will  add  a  full  line 
of  groceries  and  provisions  to  the  line  of 
goods  usually  handled  by  department  stores. 
Perhaps,  also,  several  depots  or  warehouses 
will  be  established  adjacent  to  the  railroads, 
or  as  may  serve  the  purpose  best.  At  the 
same  time,  or  very  soon  thereafter,  there  may 
be  added  a  large  wholesale  house,  perhaps 
adjoining  the  retail  department  store.     The 


72      UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY 


money  coming  into  the  National  Treasury  in 
response  to  the  "  proclamation  "  will  be  used 
for  the  foregoing  purposes  so  far  as  it  may 
permit.  The  more  fully  it  will  permit  the 
better  it  will  be.  It  will  be  the  general  in- 
tention to  make  all  transactions  for  cash  ;  and 
with  the  capital  —  the  money,  rather  —  which 
is  at  the  disposal  of  the  Administration,  there 
is  no  question  as  to  its  power  to  buy  the 
goods  it  needs,  and  do  so  to  the  best  ad- 
vantage. 

Every  available  expedient  for  the  purpose 
of  first  rooting  firmly  its  existence  in  the  busi- 
ness world  must  be  adopted,  notwithstanding 
the  subsequent  character  and  purposes  of  the 
institution.  In  fact,  for  the  express  purpose 
of  causing  it  to  acquire  the  power  to  effect 
its  future  purpose  must  this  be  done.  There- 
fore, in  consonance  with  the  elements  of  prac- 
ticality previously  pointed  out  as  essential,  it 
must  not  in  its  very  first  moment  depart  from 
the  ordinary  methods  of  doing  business.  Until 
the  doors  are  first  thrown  open  it  will  proceed 
very  much  the  same  as  if  it  were  a  private 
firm  starting  into  business. 

Contemplating  the  issuance  of  vouchers  or 
certificates,  it  must  first  establish  itself — its 
credit,  as  it  were  —  before  it  can  expect  these 
vouchers  to  be  accepted,  in  the  same  way  as 
a  private  firm  must  first  become  established 
before  its  check  will  be  currently  accepted. 


UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY      73 

Being  once  established  it  can  do  much ;  fail- 
ing to  establish  itself  it  can  do  nothing. 

Although  current  United  States  money  is 
not  suitable  to  our  subsequent  purpose,  it  is 
of  the  highest  importance  to  realize  its  ser- 
viceableness  in  effecting  the  initiatory  steps  of 
the  "  Company,"  which  service  can  not  be  ren- 
dered by  any  other  instrument.  After  this  is 
accomplished  its  further  use  will  be  discon- 
tinued, except  so  far  as  we  reserve  a  certain 
contingent  fund,  like  a  fire-extinguisher,  for 
any  contingency  that  may  arise. 

There  is  an  especial  reason,  also,  for  concen- 
trating our  activities  upon  one  precise  locality 
until  thoroughly  and  irremovably  established 
there  upon  a  comprehensive  scale.  That  will 
give  us  vastly  more  strength  and  effectiveness, 
and  influence  the  whole  country  for  good  far 
more,  than  if  we  were,  for  example,  to  com- 
mence a  small  store  in  ten  or  twenty  different 
places. 

Comprehensiveness  must  first  take  shape 
in  variety  and  line  of  goods  rather  than  area 
of  territory.  Next,  in  thoroughly  covering  a 
certain  locality  before  scattering  itself  over  the 
entire  country.  This  so  far  only  as  relates  to 
its  aggressive  activities.  So  far  as  relates  to 
the  spontaneous  demand  from  other  localities 
for  the  service  of  the  "  Company,"  it  will,  of 
course,  answer  it  as  soon  as  possible. 

At  the  very  outset  the  Administration  will 


74      UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY 

have  executed  vouchers  or  certificates  of  vari- 
ous denominations,  something,  for  example, 
like  this : 


48 

This  Certifies  that  the  Bearer  is  a  Participating 
Me??iber  in 

fr 

> 

THE  UNITED  STATES  INDUSTRIAL  CO. 

C3 

to  the  extent  of 

■*■*! 
.« 

£ 

ONE    DOLLAR, 

£ 

l 
S 

to  which  amount  he  is  entitled  to  goods  or  ser- 
vices upon  demand,  and  tender  hereof. 

LOWRY  M.  BLAIR,   Treas. 

The  exact  form  or  design  and  wording  of 
the  certificate  will  be  determined  upon  later. 
Something  to  serve  for  fractional  amounts 
can  doubtless  be  devised.  Their  first  use  will 
be  in  sending  them,  in  lieu  of  a  credit  upon 
our  books,  to  the  persons  who  have  sent  us 
remittances  for  the  initial  capital,  and  can  at 
once  be  used  by  them  in  making  purchases 
from  us,  or  from  any  one  who  chooses  to 
honor  them  —  if  they  do  not  prefer  to  frame 
and  preserve  them  as  object-lessons  of  our 
past  stupidity  upon  the  money  question. 

The  initial  branch  (at  Cincinnati,  for  ex- 
ample) being  then  duly  installed  and  a  com- 
plete line  of  goods  put  in,  it  throws  open  its 
doors  for  business.  It  is  officered  and  the 
business  administered  in  the  same  general 
manner  as  a  private  business  house.     Its  ser- 


UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY      75 

vice  will  be  fully  as  good  or  better,  its  prices 
as  low  and  lower,  as  those  of  any  house  in 
the  city. 

Its  first  economy  is  in  economical  adminis- 
tration :  in  being  able  to  buy  for  cash  and  in 
sufficient  volume,  thus  obtaining  the  very  low- 
est prices ;  in  being  free  from  any  interest  in 
securing  and  maintaining  its  capital ;  in  being 
free  from  the  initial  loss  of  a  private  institu- 
tion involved  in  long-drawn-out  preparations, 
and  especially  in  waiting  for  its  trade  or  cus- 
tom to  assume  a  paying  volume,  during  which 
time  large  expense  goes  merrily  on ;  and  in 
being  free  of  the  necessity  of  making  a  large 
profit  or  interest  upon  its  investment — which 
interest  alone,  on  the  one  million,  say,  initial 
capital,  would  be  $50,000  to  $60,000  the  first 
year.  The  saving  of  interest  upon  its  capital 
will  be  enormous  in  time.  Spite  of  the  im- 
mense capital  which  the  certificates  in  circu- 
lation, or,  in  other  words,  the  vast  stock  of 
goods  in  all  its  branches,  will  soon  represent ; 
spite  of  the  great  wealth  in  Land,  Buildings, 
and  Material  Instruments  of  Production  which 
the  Company  accumulates  for  the  purposes 
of  its  existence,  not  one  cent  of  it  pays  any 
interest. 

It  is  clear  that  with  all  these  economies 
assured  to  its  customers,  and  its  character 
essentially  such  that  its  statements  as  to  qual- 
ity and  nature  of  goods,  and  as  to  relative  low- 
ness  of  price,  would  be  unquestioningly  ac- 


76      UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY 

cepted,  the  volume  of  business  would  quickly 
assume  proportions  way  beyond  that  of  any 
house  in  the  city. 

Witness  in  your  imagination  the  gratifica- 
tion every  one  will  feel  in  dealing  with  this 
house :  no  deception  or  misrepresentation, 
and  no  occasion  or  temptation  for  any ;  no 
dickering  about  price  on  the  customer's  part, 
no  attempt  on  the  salesman's  part  to  sell  to 
you  what  you  do  not  want ;  every  facility 
present  for  the  speedy,  accurate,  and  satis- 
factory accomplishment  of  your  purchase. 

Very  soon  its  variety  of  goods  in  any  par- 
ticular line  which  it  handles  will  comprehend 
everything  in  the  market.  Spending  hours 
and  days  searching  from  store  to  store  as 
now  will  be  unnecessary.  If  it  is  not  in  our 
store  it  is  practically  nowhere.  The  public 
will  quickly  learn  this,  and  in  no  very  long 
time  "all  roads  will  lead  to  Rome."  Here 
will  begin  its  first  evil  effect  —  the  emancipa- 
tion of  the  shopping  woman  who  doesn't  want 
to  be  emancipated. 

The  establishment  will  not  assume  to  dic- 
tate to  purchasers,  either  individually  or  col- 
lectively. It  will  sell  you  dross  or  it  will  sell 
you  gold,  in  either  case  telling  you  the  exact 
truth.  It  will  handle  cheap  goods  and  ex- 
pensive goods,  poor  goods  and  fine  goods. 
It  will  sell  you  a  pair  of  overalls  or  the  outfit 
of  a  Beau  Brummel ;  a  bauble  or  a  treasure. 
The  goods  or  styles  it  shall  handle  will  be 


UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY      77 

wholly  dependent  upon  whether  the  public 
or  any  one  wants  them. 

Aside  from  its  local  business,  it  will  cer- 
tainly have  a  vast  mail  business,  wholesale 
and  retail.  Furthermore,  it  will  transact  a 
large  business,  if  it  wishes  or  needs  to,  in 
goods  it  does  not  at  once  carry  in  stock. 
For  example,  if,  in  the  beginning,  it  does  not 
handle  plows  or  buggies  or  pumps  or  paint, 
and  receives  an  order  for  such,  it  can  have 
the  organization  and  facilities  to  purchase  the 
required  article  from  the  manufacturer  and 
ship  it  to  its  customer. 

Concern  is  to  be  felt  for  fear  it  cannot 
grow  fast  enough  to  satisfy  the  clamorous  de- 
mand for  its  services  and  fill  the  orders  which 
roll  in,  rather  than  any  concern  about  it  not 
securing  business  enough.  And  this  is  said 
in  the  utmost  seriousness. 

Long  before  it  assumes  the  mammoth  pro- 
portions alluded  to,  the  Company  will  have 
begun  to  use  its  certificates.  Wherever  it 
can  do  so,  in  whole  or  any  part,  it  uses  these 
certificates  in  the  purchase  of  its  supplies. 
Upon  being  fairly  established,  with  a  suffi- 
cient reserve  of  United  States  money  (which 
needn't  be  relatively  very  large),  and  enjoy- 
ing a  credit  strength,  as  it  is  called  commer- 
cially, beyond  that  of  any  large  concern  in 
the  city,  its  orders  will  be  solicited  by  many 
manufacturers  throughout  the  country.  In 
even  its  early  stages  it  will  doubtless  be  al- 


7 8      UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY 

ready  enabled  to  purchase  many  goods  from 
manufacturers  in  this  locality,  and  render  its 
certificates  to  them  in  return.  Here,  then, 
is  the  point  at  which  its  certificate  begins  to 
exert  an  influence. 

It  is  not  forgotten  that  many  times,  in  the 
beginning,  the  tender  of  its  certificates  will  be 
refused  acceptance  on  the  part  of  manufactur- 
ers. In  consequence  the  Company  will  fre- 
quently make  its  purchases  elsewhere,  and  soon 
manufacturers  will  observe  that  the  houses 
which  are  accepting  them  are  doing  a  good 
business  in  consequence  of  the  addition  of 
our  orders  to  those  otherwise  received,  and 
that  those  not  accepting  them  are  languish- 
ing for  want  of  sufficient  volume  of  business 
to  keep  their  factories  on  full  time  and  in 
full  force.  We  can  go  on  doing  business  with 
United  States  money  as  long  as  we  need  to. 
And,  by  reason  of  our  extensive  variety  of 
goods  and  extensive  denominations  of  trans- 
actions—  from  that  of  a  paper  of  pins  up 
through  wholesale  quantities  to  car-loads  or 
train-loads,  if  necessary — by  reason  of  this 
there  will  be  hundreds  of  occasions  where  a 
mere  credit  upon  our  books  will  serve  the  pur- 
pose of  cash  transactions  (without  the  requisite 
feature  of  money  as  now),  because  the  per- 
son or  house  receiving  the  credit  can  at  once 
be  supplied  his  or  their  wants  in  return  out 
of  our  establishment,  its  branches  or  depots. 
And  largely  this  will  be  preferred  by  the  other 


UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY      79 

party  because  our  prices  are  lower  than  he  can 
buy  the  same  goods  for  elsewhere.  Observe 
throughout  the  element  of  self-interest  every- 
where serving  in  our  support.  This  is  what 
makes  the  institution  automatic. 

Now,  returning  to  the  most  crucial  test  of 
our  institution,  namely,  the  initial  introduction 
of  the  certificate  into  the  business  world,  let 
us  see  how  surely  it  will  stand  it.  Remem- 
bering that  we  have  in  actual  existence  and 
active  operation  a  large  department  store 
plus  food  departments  or  branches  —  namely, 
Groceries  and  Provisions  —  we  approach  a 
manufacturer  to  make  a  purchase  of  him. 
We  ascertain  that  the  prices  he  offers  are 
satisfactory.  Suppose,  now,  we  say  to  him 
as  follows :  "  We  wish  to  make  an  order  for 
$200  worth  of  your  goods.  You  are  buying 
some  goods,  no  matter  to  how  small  an  ex- 
tent, which  we  can  furnish  you.  If  you 
want  any  such  now,  let  us  furnish  them  to 
you  in  part  payment.  If  not,  well  and  good. 
Furthermore,  you  are  paying  out  in  your 
pay-roll  weekly,  say,  $500.  Your  employees 
spend  at  least  $400  of  this  within  a  week  after 
receiving  it.  They  already  spend,  perhaps, 
$200  of  it  at  our  store  or  stores.  Now,  you 
deliver  to  us  our  order  for  $200,  and  we  will 
credit  you  that  sum  upon  our  books.  Then 
upon  your  very  next  pay-day  you  make  drafts 
upon  us  for  one,  two,  or  five  dollars  each,  pay- 
able to  such  of  your  workmen  or  office  force 


80      UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY 

as  prefer  them ;  and  these  employees  can  at 
once  come  to  our  store  with  them  and  spend 
them  for  clothes,  furniture,  notions,  groceries, 
or  anything  we  have,  and  we  will  receive  them 
at  face-value.  But  that's  too  much  annoy- 
ance to  you,  to  have  to  make  out  so  many- 
drafts.  Instead  of  that  we  will  give  you  our 
drafts  upon  ourselves,  payable  to  bearer,  in 
the  denominations  named,  and  you  pass  these 
to  your  employees  instead,  without  even  the 
trouble  to  you  of  having  to  indorse  each 
one.  These  drafts  of  ours,  as  you  will  ob- 
serve by  this  one  I  have  here,  do  not  bear  the 
usual  phraseology  of  ordinary  sight-drafts,  but, 
nevertheless,  embody  the  essence  of  a  sight- 
draft.  More  important  than  this,  however, 
they  additionally  confer  'participating  mem- 
bership '  upon  the  bearer,  as  you  will  observe, 
which  is  valuable  in  this  way :  that,  when  we 
deem  it  advisable  —  which  will,  perhaps,  be 
very  soon,  our  volume  of  business  is  becom- 
ing so  great — we  shall  be  obliged  to  limit 
our  sales — in  other  words,  the  service  of  our 
Company  —  to  participating  members.  That 
will  compel  persons  who  cannot  tender  our 
certificates  to  make  their  purchases  elsewhere  ; 
and  inasmuch  as  our  services  are  so  much  bet- 
ter and  our  prices  lower  than  elsewhere,  this 
obliges  said  non-member  to  pay  more  for  the 
goods  he  buys  than  if  bought  at  our  store. 
To  make  you  entirely  safe,  we  agree  that  if, 
when  pay-day  is  past,  you  should  have  any 


UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY      81 

of  the  certificates  left  over,  or  any  of  your 
employees  should  be  unable  to  find  what  he 
wants  at  our  store  to  his  entire  satisfaction  — 
we  agree  that  you  and  he,  or  you  for  him, 
may  notify  our  office,  and  we  will  at  once 
come  here  and  take  up  these  certificates  with 
United  States  money.  This  latter  provision 
holds  good,  of  course,  only  where  we  specifi- 
cally make  it ;  but,  virtually,  it  is  our  general 
custom  until  such  time  as  we  see  fit  to  discon- 
tinue it,  which  discontinuance  shall,  of  course, 
not  take  effect  in  a  manner  that  would  dis- 
honor any  obligation  we  are  under. 

"  You  observe  that  in  doing  business  with 
us  in  this  way  you  suffer  no  loss  or  incon- 
venience whatever.  In  fact,  you  get  business 
which,  if  you  refuse,  we  shall  endeavor  to  place 
elsewhere.  You  further  get  the  advantage 
of  a  cash  transaction,  and  avoid  all  risk  as  to 
payment,  were  there  any,  as  well  as  avoid 
tying  up  so  much  of  your  capital  for  thirty, 
sixty,  or  ninety  days,  as  would  otherwise  be 
the  case.  Furthermore,  you  put  yourself  in 
position  to  do,  ultimately,  a  large  business 
with  us,  amounting  to  perhaps  thousands  of 
dollars  a  month.  In  such  case  the  advan- 
tage would  be  very  great  to  you  of  doing  this 
business  with  so  much  more  capital  at  your 
ready  command  in  consequence  of  the  trans- 
actions all  being  cash,  or  requiring  so  much 
less  capital  on  your  part — whichever  way  you 
choose  to  put  it — and  the  further  relief  from 


82      UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY 

all  the  risk  and  depreciation  of  time  transac- 
tions. Were  you  to  do,  for  example,  $500 
of  business  with  us  weekly,  it  would  amount 
to  $25,000  worth  in  a  year,  virtually  accom- 
plished, on  your  part,  with  $500  of  active 
capital.  You  would  thus  turn  that  $500  cap- 
ital fifty-two  times  in  a  year." 

This  in  substance  would  be  the  proposition 
made.  Can  any  one  conversant  with  inside 
business  affairs  seriously  say  that  this  propo- 
sition would  not  be  accepted  to  almost  any 
degree  necessary  to  our  purpose  ?  It  isn't 
probable  that  we  would  have  to  quit  business 
for  lack  of  sufficient  success  in  this  direction. 

Remember  it  does  not  follow  that  because 
we  cannot  at  once  obtain  absolutely  every- 
thing we  wish  we  should  not,  therefore,  handle 
whatever  we  properly  can  obtain. 

As  will  appear  upon  reflection,  there  is  no 
reason  why  we  cannot  in  time  engage  in  the 
manufacture,  on  our  own  part,  of  anything 
which  we  cannot  otherwise  secure  :  which  the 
present  manufacturer  refuses  to  sell  to  us  on 
any  terms ;  which  is  costing  us  too  much ; 
or,  ultimately,  in  the  manufacture  of  which 
wrongful  labor  or  other  conditions  prevail 
which  we  can  successfully  remedy  by  engag- 
ing in  it  ourselves  either  in  the  usual  way  or 
by  organizing  a  cooperative  plant,  furnishing 
or  securing  the  required  executive  talent,  and 
lending  our  credit  or  capital  (without  interest). 
The   mere  suggestion   here  reveals  limitless 


UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY      83 


possibilities  for  good,  which  in  due  time  and 
rapid  order — as  compared  with  the  snail's 
progress  of  to-day  —  we  can  accomplish. 

A  merely  parenthetic  suggestion  for  exam- 
ple:  In  Boston,  for  more  than  two  years, 
effort  and  agitation  have  been  had  to  bring 
the  city  of  Boston  to  go  into  the  coal  busi- 
ness, so  as  to  relieve  the  poor,  especially,  who 
must  buy  in  such  small  lots,  from  the  extreme 
cost,  if  not  extortion,  of  buying  in  that  way. 
If  any  private  person  should  have  gone  into 
that  project,  instead  of  the  city,  would  any 
one  have  objected  ?  See  the  effort  it  takes 
to  accomplish  —  no,  not  to  accomplish,  but 
rather  to  fail  in  accomplishing,  through  legis- 
lation—  so  moderate  a  project  as  that!  Now 
suppose  that  three  winters  ago,  when  that 
proposition  originated,  this  Company  had  ex- 
isted in  Boston,  and  were,  say,  a  year  or  two 
old  (so  it  would  have  the  necessary  capital) : 
would  it  not  at  once  have  gone  into  it,  and 
the  people  have  risen  and  called  it  blessed  ? 
Not  a  cent  would  it  lose  by  doing  it ;  strictly 
business,  you  observe  —  no  philanthropy,  so 
called.  The  following  winter  a  similar  situa- 
tion prevailed  in  Cincinnati  as  previously  in 
Boston. 

When  now  the  Company  has  its  initial 
business  established,  and  has  developed  ade- 
quate provisions  for  the  purpose,  it  will  receive 
farm  products  of  every  kind,  and  issue  to  the 
farmer  certificates  for  the  same,  in  the  same 


84      UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY 

manner  as  to  the  manufacturer  for  manufac- 
tured product.  In  time  it  can,  for  example, 
arrange  with  a  farmer  to  take  his  entire  pro- 
duct, paying  him  in  certificates  or  credit  upon 
our  books,  which  in  turn  the  farmer  will  use 
making  purchases  of  us.  Thus  the  transac- 
tion becomes  practically  an  exchange  pure  and 
simple,  which  is  the  fundamental  element  of 
true  cooperation,  a  full  and  complete  appli- 
cation of  which  is  the  next  industrial  stage 
before  us,  and  into  which  this  institution  wrill 
gradually  evolve.  We  shall  arrange  or  con- 
tract with  farmers  individually,  or  with  any 
group,  association,  or  cpoperative  institution 
of  them.  It  can  be  seen  how  advantageous 
it  will  be  to  a  farmer  when,  for  example,  the 
time  has  come  that,  by  previous  arrangement 
of  some  kind,  we  agree  to  take  his  entire  pro- 
duct. His  market  is  thus  assured  at  once ;  he 
obtains  more  time  to  apply  to  increasing  the 
amount  of  his  product,  wastes  no  time  seeking 
buyers.  He,  like  the  manufacturer,  will  cease 
to  "walk  the  floor"  and  "lay  awake  nights," 
as  of  yore,  out  of  concern  for  the  morrow. 

In  due  time  the  Cincinnati  department  will 
establish  branches  in  various  parts  of  the  city, 
either  by  installing  new  stores  or  buying  out 
existing  ones.  In  many  cases  the  previous 
proprietor  or  manager  will  be  continued  in 
charge.  In  time  there  will  be  a  branch  in 
perhaps  every  ward  of  the  city  and  suburbs, 
including  the  towns  across  the  river.    At  each 


UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY      85 


of  these  branches  the  stock  will  comprise  all 
things  which  people  usually  carry  away  at 
once,  and  additionally  a  complete  line  of 
samples  from  which  the  force  in  charge  can 
take  an  order  of  any  description  and  trans- 
mit it  to  headquarters,  from  whence  it  will 
be  delivered  to  the  home  of  the  purchaser 
the  same  as  any  large  house  does  now.  The 
housewife  out  in  the  suburbs,  no  matter 
how  remote,  need  go  but  a  small  distance  to 
our  branch,  and  there  will  find,  by  means  of 
samples,  the  entire  market  of  the  country  at 
her  command.  She  can  buy  a  can  of  corn 
to  a  car-load  of  potatoes,  a  spool  of  thread 
to  an  entire  bridal  outfit,  a  jews'-harp  to  a 
piano.  She  can  order  the  entire  furnishing 
of  a  house  from  cellar  to  garret,  with  barely 
an  occasion  to  go  beyond  the  branch  estab- 
lishment. 

Many  small  economies  must  become  appa- 
rent now.  For  example,  consider  the  econ- 
omy of  our  delivery  system.  All  orders  for 
delivery  from  the  entire  district  are  concen- 
trated under  one  department  for  the  purpose. 
They  are  arranged  like  the  post-office  arranges 
letters,  and  the  deliveries  made  in  the  same 
systematic  way.  Under  present  arrangements 
we  discover  the  separate  delivery  wagons  of 
five  to  ten  different  houses  in  one  square  in 
one  day,  all  of  which  might  have  been  served 
by  one  wagon  were  the  business  all  of  one 
house.     As  Professor  Ely  points  out  in  re- 


86      UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY 


gard  to  the  milk  business :  instead  of  having 
five  to  ten  milk  wagons  serve  one  block,  and 
each  separate  wagon  required  to  traverse  nearly 
the  whole  city,  we  can,  upon  going  into  the 
milk  business  and  successfully  absorbing  the 
household  trade  of  the  city,  deliver  milk  like 
letters  are  delivered,  each  wagon  having  its 
particular  district.  What  a  vast  duplication 
of  labor  will  thus  be  avoided,  the  economy 
thereof  accruing  to  the  Company,  and  there- 
fore to  the  people  in  common ! 

When  the  time  arrives  we  will  go  into  an 
adjacent  town  —  say,  for  example,  Lebanon, 
O.  —  and  there  establish  a  branch.  Sup- 
pose we  buy  suitable  land  alongside  the  rail- 
road, and  erect  a  building  upon  it;  place  a 
manager  in  charge  the  same  as  now  a  post- 
master is  appointed,  organizing  the  force  from 
among  the  resident  people  so  far  as  the  quali- 
fications are  present ;  and  put  in  a  stock  of 
goods  plus  a  full  line  of  samples.  Every- 
thing now  sold  in  Lebanon  not  only,  but  in 
Cincinnati  or  New  York,  will  be  on  sale  there 
in  due  time.  If  necessary,  in  the  beginning, 
the  Administration,  through  its  Department 
of  Promotion,  will  take  the  necessary  steps 
to  acquaint  the  farmers  and  community  ad- 
jacent of  the  presence  of  the  "  Company " 
and  its  methods  and  objects,  the  same  as  a 
private  firm  would  advertise  itself  if  it  opened 
a  branch  in  the  town.  Besides  being  a  selling 
or  delivery  branch,  it  would  be  also  a  receiv- 


UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY      87 


ing  depot.  Whatever  farmer  or  producer  in 
that  section  felt  agreeable  to  doing  so  could 
bring  his  product  at  time  or  times  and  re- 
ceive certificates  for  the  same.  He  could  turn 
about  and  spend  a  part  of  them,  and,  if  he 
wished,  deposit  the  remainder,  the  same  as 
money,  with  our  Treasury  Department,  which 
would  have  a  branch  there  for  that  purpose. 
He  could  draw  upon  that  deposit  in  any 
manner,  the  same  as  he  would  draw  upon 
his  deposit  in  the  bank  or  upon  the  treasury 
of  his  own  firm. 

The  management  at  Lebanon  would  be  in 
constant  intercommunication  with  the  Admin- 
istration, making,  daily,  all  necessary  reports 
and  requisitions  for  supplies,  and  receiving, 
daily,  instructions  of  every  kind,  including 
directions  where  and  in  what  quantities  to 
ship  the  products,  etc.,  which  it  receives. 

This  example  of  what  the  institution  does 
in  one  town  illustrates  what  it  will  do  ulti- 
mately in  every  part  of  the  country.  In  a 
short  time  petitions  from  all  parts  of  the  coun- 
try will  come  in,  and,  as  it  finds  itself  able,  it 
sends  a  member  of  its  corps  to  any  required 
place,  organizes  a  branch  there,  furnishes  the 
stock  and  capital,  and  sets  it  going. 

So  far  as  it  wishes  to,  or  finds  necessary, 
it  may  buy  or  erect  any  manner  of  institu- 
tion ;  it  may  operate  any  kind  of  manufac- 
tory, farm,  or  enterprise  it  sees  fit ;  it  may 
buy  land  for  any  proper  purpose  ;^  on  land 


88      UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY 

in  the  city  and  suburbs  it  may  erect  homes  — 
in  fact,  may  establish  entire  subdivisions  or 
villages ;  it  may  establish  Departments  of  In- 
surance, Pharmacy,  Medicine,  Surgery,  and 
Nursing.  In  short,  it  may  establish  and  oper- 
ate any  manner  of  institution  :  of  Manufactur- 
ing, of  Education,  of  Recreation,  of  Health ; 
may  ultimately  build  and  operate  Steamboats, 
Railroads,  Telegraphs,  Express  Lines,  Street- 
railways,  Gas,  Electric,  and  Water  Works,  so 
far  as  the  governmental  machinery  is  too  slow 
in  the  matter. 

In  every  direction  whatsoever,  services  or 
goods  of  the  Company  are  obtainable  with 
certificates,  finally  only  with  certificates.  As 
the  circulation  of 'its  certificates  (or  bookkeep- 
ing and  bookkeeping  substitutes)  expands,  its 
transactions  and  services  expand  to  keep  pace 
with  it.  Its  service  can  so  expand,  because 
to  the  extent  of  the  increased  circulation  it 
acquires  the  increased  wealth  to  perform  the 
expansion.  As  we  grow  so  our  facilities  grow  to 
supply  the  manufacturer  his  supplies  and  raw 
material,  and  thus  in  turn  he  will  accept  a  pro- 
portionately larger  amount  of  certificates,  be- 
cause with  them  he  can  buy  his  supplies  of  us. 

So  far  as  is  expedient  and  necessary  to  its 
office,  it  may  lend  its  credit  and  capital  (fur- 
nish certificates  and  stock)  to  any  person  or 
group,  and  when  so  doing  neither  ask  nor 
receive  interest.  This  under  regulations  to  be 
provided. 


VIII 
"BETTER  THAN   MONEY" 

SPEAKING  of  Consumption  in  the  sense 
.  of  purchasing  power,  it  is  the  prime  pur- 
pose of  this  institution  to  restore  the  balance 
between  Consumption  and  Production,  with- 
out which  balance  there  can  be  no  industrial 
order.  This  to  be  accomplished  by  the  new 
system  of  Distribution  which  the  institution 
represents,  and  by  means  of  its  particular  cer- 
tificates or  credits. 

Production  and  Consumption  are  analogous 
to  the  two  sides  or  pans  of  a  counter  scale, 
Distribution  being  the  cross-beam  connecting 
the  two,  with  this  difference :  the  cross-beam 
is  so  constructed  that,  by  means  of  a  jointed 
mechanism  at  the  center,  the  two  pans  of  the 
scale  move  up  or  down  in  like  direction  and 
exactly  like  degree  to  each  other,  instead  of 
in  opposite  directions.  To  avoid  any  sort  of 
trouble  in  the  industrial  system  the  balance 
between  the  two  pans  must  be  accurately 
maintained.  So  far  as  they  are  out  of  bal- 
89 


9o      UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY 

ance,  so  far  will  there  continue  to  be  trouble 
in  the  industrial  system.  No  such  balance, 
or  any  balance  whatever,  can  be  secured 
by  any  methods  or  arrangements  now  in 
vogue. 

The  United  States  Industrial  Company  is 
the  required  arrangement,  and  its  certificate 
the  device  that  will  bring  about  the  balance, 
The  certificate  is  the  mechanism  at  the  cen- 
ter. As  Production  goes  up  or  down,  it  will, 
by  means  of  the  power  exerted  through  the 
mechanism  at  the  center  (the  certificate),  com- 
pel Consumption  (purchasing  power)  to  go  up 
or  down  to  like  degree.  As  much  as  is  pro- 
duced will  be  consumed,  as  much  as  we  want 
to  consume  will  be  produced. 

This  is  brought  about  in  this  way :  There 
are  services,  labor,  productive  power,  manu- 
facturing power,  of  every  kind  and  in  vast 
quantity,  ready  at  hand  to  do  and  to  pro- 
duce, if  only  it  could  be  sold.  It  is  proposed 
that  The  United  States  Industrial  Company 
start  it  a-going ;  in  plain  words,  buy  it.  If  it 
buys  it,  how  will  it  sell  it  ?  By  paying  for  it 
in  certificates,  the  very  issue  of  which  creates 
the  market  or  sale  for  the  services  or  goods 
we  have  bought.  We  in  no  manner  pay  them 
out  except  for  goods,  in  no  manner  receive 
them  back  except  for  goods.  The  limited  de- 
gree with  which  we  use  United  States  money 
in  the  beginning  does  not  alter  this,  for  that 
money  is  for  the  express  purpose  of  being 


UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY      91 

transformed  into  goods.  Thus  behind  every 
certificate  issued  there  is  a  real  commodity 
with  which  to  redeem  it — not  the  representa- 
tive merely,  or  a  pile  of  gold  and  silver  which 
we  cannot  eat  or  wear. 

The  certificate  will  buy  back  precisely  the 
equivalent  goods  or  service  originally  rendered 
us  for  the  certificate,  minus  the  trifling  cost 
of  administering  and  operating  the  Company  ; 
thus  a  proper  balance  takes  place.  There 
can  be  no  over-production  or  under-consump- 
tion ;  there  can  be  no  one  idle  who  can  pro- 
duce something  or  render  any  kind  of  useful 
service.  He  is  free  to  produce  at  his  will, 
and  we  can  freely  accept  it,  subject  only  to 
provisions  which  guide  Production  along  the 
line  of  goods  which  are  wanted,  which  are 
salable,  and  subject  to  the  market  price  for 
like  goods,  as  near  as  can  be  determined. 
This  market  price  affects  the  selling  price  as 
well  as  the  buying  price,  and  thus,  no  matter 
how  low  our  buying  price  or  productive  cost 
is,  the  selling  price  is  equally  low  in  propor- 
tion. It  is  not  the  amount  of  either  price  in 
itself  which  concerns  us,  but  the  proportion  of 
the  one  to  the  other. 

Furthermore,  it  does  not  matter  ultimately 
how  much  or  little  any  one  produces.  If  a 
farmer  or  manufacturer,  or  producer  of  any- 
kind,  fetches  to  us  one  hundred  dollars',  one 
thousand  dollars',  or  one  hundred  thousand 
dollars'  worth  it  does  not  matter  at  all,  so  it 


92      UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY 


is  salable ;  we  can  safely  and  complacently 
accept  it,  for  by  the  very  act  of  his  accept- 
ing the  certificates  to  that  amount  he  engages 
to  buy  back  exactly  that  same  amount.  To 
the  extent  that  he  produces  he  thus  engages 
to  consume  from  our  store. 

It  doesn't  matter  whether  he  spends  it  at 
once  with  us  or  at  intervals ;  whether  at  one 
branch  or  another ;  whether  for  one  com- 
modity or  another.  At  some  time,  some- 
where, the  certificate  comes  back  to  us  with 
none  the  less  certainty,  and  virtually  we  sim- 
ply carry  or  store  his  goods  for  him  until  he 
is  ready  to  call  for  them,  and  he  pays  the  ex- 
pense of  storage,  of  the  exchange  of  them  for 
others  of  equivalent  value,  and  of  their  dis- 
tribution from  and  to  him. 

Without  any  change  of  domicile  or  occu- 
pation, without  friction,  disturbance,  or  hard- 
ship, this  institution  opens  a  way  for  every 
one  to  sell  his  or  her  services  or  product  at  a 
better  ?iet  price  than  possible  any  other  way 
at  present.  This  applies  alike  to  the  now 
unemployed  or  employed  laborer,  mechanic, 
or  artisan ;  to  the  farmer,  the  manufacturer, 
the  physician,  the  teacher,  the  scientist,  the 
actor,  artist,  musician  —  the  professional  of 
every  kind,  the  producer  of  every  kind. 

It  is  evident  now  that  the  certificate  has 
a  function  or  office  to  perform  peculiarly  its 
own.  No  money  now  in  use  —  in  fact,  noth- 
ing uttered  by  any  other  source  than  the  Com- 


UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY      93 

pany  itself — will  "do  the  business."  Further- 
more, the  things  behind  the  certificate  are 
substantial,  useful,  and  real,  not  fictitious  or 
formal.  Not  a  certificate  issues  but  it  is  based 
on  something  real.  However  great  the  vol- 
ume it  matters  not.  If  any  one  produce  ten 
millions'  worth  of  goods,  were  such  a  thing- 
possible,  and  chose  to  hoard  or  lock  up  the 
certificates,  he  could  do  so  to  his  heart's 
content.  We  have  his  goods,  the  real 
wealth,  to  use  as  capital  in  our  business ;  he 
has  a  pile  of  paper  which  he  can  neither 
eat,  wear,  sell,  nor  lend  —  for  who  will  need 
to  borrow  it? 

The  certificate  is,  therefore,  not  only  abso- 
lutely indispensable  to  our  institution,  but  is 
additionally  ten  thousand  times  "  better  than 
money." 

It  is  well  to  point  out  here  that  between 
a  certificate  and  a  credit  upon  our  books 
there  is  as  little  difference  as  between  a  bank- 
check  and  the  credit  in  the  bank  against 
which  the  check  is  drawn.  Both  are  forms' 
of  "  Cash:' 

Therefore  credits,  especially  in. larger  sums, 
can  be  made  transferable  the  same  as  certifi- 
cates. 

There  may  arise  the  question  whether  our 
circulation  in  the  form  of  certificates  will  be 
subject  to  tax  because  equivalent  to  money. 
It  is  doubtful  whether  any  statute  can  be 
twisted  to  do  this,  and  especially  doubtful 


94      UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY 


that  the  "  Company  "  will  sit  supinely  and 
not  defend  itself.  In  the  first  place,  the  Com- 
pany is  a  mutual  and  beneficial  association, 
an  institution  not  for  private  profit,  on  which 
score  it  is  entitled  under  law  to  privileges  and 
immunities  that  are  really  not  essential  to  it ; 
secondly,  its  certificates  do  not  claim  to  be 
money  —  certainly  not  "legal  tender"  —  and 
if  their  instrumentality  and  serviceableness  are 
a  vast  benefit  to  the  people,  and  are  not  for 
private  profit,  as  bank-notes  are,  then  to  tax 
them  like  State  bank-notes  would  be  an  ab- 
surdity very  difficult  to  effect,  and,  if  effected, 
would  assuredly  arouse  the  country's  protest 
and  the  repeal  of  the  law. 

But  this  is  no  serious  problem  even  at  the 
worst.  The  Company's  existence  is  not  mate- 
rially hindered  by  having  to  pay  10  per  cent, 
tax  on  its  circulation.  In  such  event  the 
use  of  credits  instead  of  certificates  would  be 
especially  promoted ;  all  large  transactions 
would  require  but  a  modicum  of  certificates 
for  making  occasional  balances ;  the  great 
volume  of  business  between  the  hundreds 
and  ultimately  thousands  of  branches  would 
be  largely  mere  bookkeeping,  with  occasion- 
ally a  balance  closed  by  certificates.  Thus 
five  millions  in  certificates  would  serve  for 
fifty  to  a  hundred  millions  of  business.  The 
constant  use  of  certificates  would  be  largely 
confined  to  retail  transactions.  Here  they 
will  be  received  and  paid  out  time  and  time 


UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY      95 

again,  each  dollar  circulating  rive  to  twenty 
successive  times  in  the  course  of  a  year. 

Altogether,  therefore,  a  10  per  cent,  tax 
upon  our  circulation  would  be  perhaps  less 
than  1  per  cent,  on  our  total  volume  of  business. 
We  can  well  afford  to  pay  1  per  cent.,  if  we 
must,  for  the  sake  of  the  saving  of  10  to  25 
per  cent,  on  our  total  volume  of  business. 

It  should  not  be  forgotten  that  the  transac- 
tions conducted  by  means  of  credits  instead 
of  certificates  will  be  essentially  cash  trans- 
actions. A  vast  amount  of  business  can  be 
so  conducted,  and  will  be,  so  far  as  possible. 
Where  not  feasible,  certificates  will  of  course 
be  used. 

Again,  the  utmost  use  of  certificates  would 
make  the  circulation  perhaps  $50  to  $100  per 
capita,  while  the  volume  of  business,  corre- 
spondingly, would  be  not  less  than  $500  per 
capita.  Hence  with  an  out-and-out  cash  busi- 
ness our  circulation  would  cost  but  1  to  2  per 
cent. ;  and  if  credits  are  used  where  conve- 
nient, but  half  as  much. 

Finally,  our  certificates  are  free  from  the 
popular  objection  to  any  form  of  money  which 
issues  from  a  multitude  of  sources,  such  as 
State  bank-notes.  Though  we  may  have  ten 
thousand  branches,  no  branch  issues  its  own 
certificates,  but  uses  those  uttered  by  the  Na- 
tional Treasury  of  the  Company.  There  is, 
therefore,  a  uniformity  of  certificate  through- 
out the  country.   Almost  needless  to  add,  there 


96      UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY 

can  be  no  expansion  or  contraction,  so  called, 
of  currency ;  for  the  certificate  is  merely  in 
essence  a  form  of  bookkeeping,  and  there 
clearly  can  be  no  expansion  or  contraction 
of  bookkeeping. 


IX 

PER    CAPITA  — REAL    AND 
FICTITIOUS 

IT  will  be  interesting  to  observe  the  influ- 
ence of  The  United  States  Industrial  Com- 
pany upon  per-capita  wealth.  The  per  capita 
is  at  present  represented  as  being  about  $i  i  oo, 
figuring  65,000,000  people  and  $72,000,000,- 
000.  But  this  isn't  a  substantial  truth.  We 
have  observed  that  $55,000,000,000  of  this 
is  alone  possessed  by  the  small  fraction  of 
250,000  people.  Substantially  it  leaves  but 
$17,000,000,000  for  the  remaining  64,750,- 
000  people  (and  this  includes  well-to-do  mer- 
chants and  farmers). 

Substantially,  then,  the  per  capita  is  but 
$263. 

Of  the  interest  burden,  which  is  now  $3,000,- 
000,000  annually,  we  only  pay  $2,200,000,- 
000,  defaulting  upon  the  balance  for  lack  of 
anything  to  pay  it  with.  In  not  very  long 
time  this  will  be  largely  saved  to  the  people 
by  this  Company,  and  ultimately  entirely. 
Long  before  all  the  people  cooperate  or  par- 
ticipate under  this  institution,  to  those  who  do 
participate  will  be  saved  their  proportion  of 


98      UNIVERSAL   PROSPERITY 

this  $2,200,000,000  interest  —  namely,  about 
$34  per  annum  each. 

Of  the  cost  of  distribution,  commercially 
termed  expense  and  profit  or  margin,  it  is 
more  than  safe  to  say  that  half  of  this  will  be 
saved  to  the  participators  within  one  or  two 
years  after  its  establishment.  This  one  half 
will  amount  to  certainly  not  less  than  $3,000,- 
000,000  annually ;  and  under  the  prosperous 
condition  and  stimulated  production  that  will 
ensue  during  the  next  ten  years  it  would  aver- 
age perhaps  $10,000,000,000  or  more  an- 
nually, if  figured  at  the  rate  of  distributive 
cost  now  prevailing.  However,  figuring  but 
$3,250,000,000,  it  amounts  to  $50  per  capita 
per  year. 

Together,  these  two  items  alone  are  $84 
per  year;  in  ten  years  $840  per  capita,  or 
$4200  per  family  of  five.  It  should  be  ob- 
served particularly  that  this  saving  is  actual. 
It  is  retained  to  the  people  and  not  paid  out, 
in  profit  or  interest,  to  concentrate  itself  in 
other  hands  than  their  own,  for  which  they 
get  no  goods  in  return.  It  is  wealth  in  their 
possession, to  use  or  consume.  It  is  equivalent 
to  so  much  increase  of  "  purchasing  power." 
It  gives  to  each  family,  as  it  were,  an  average 
increased  income  of  $420  per  year. 

Contemplate,  for  the  pleasure  of  it  —  for 
its  possibility  is  quite  real  —  the  per  capita  of 
ten  years  hence.  In  consequence  of  the  oper- 
ations of  this  institution  and  the  elimination 


UNIVERSAL   PROSPERITY     99 

of  wastes  in  consequence  of  it  virtually  mak- 
ing everybody  a  producer  for  his  own  use 
and  consumption,  it  will  finally  remove  every 
barrier  to  free  and  unlimited  production  — 
it  will  bring  about  the  employment  of  every 
man  in  the  country.  It  will  open  productive 
occupation  for  millions  now  in  the  distribu- 
tive division.  It  will  thus  cause  the  rate  of 
"  increase  of  wealth,"  which  in  the  past  ten 
years  was  $22,000,000,000,  to  leap  to  per- 
haps three  times,  yes,  five  times,  if  it  weren't 
that  we  shall  consume  so  much  of  it  in  conse- 
quence of  the  universal  poverty  now  prevail- 
ing. Instead  of  there  being  $72,000,000,000 
of  wealth  and  only  $17,000,000,000  of  it  in 
the  hands  of  the  people,  as  now,  there  will 
then  be  $150,000,000,000  or  more,  and  all 
of  it  distributed  among  the  people.  Thus 
the  substantial  per-capita  wealth  will  advance 
from  $263  to  at  least  $2000.  Production 
will  not  cease  accelerating  until,  so  to  speak, 
every  family  in  the  land  has  a  comfortable 
home  ("with  a  bath-room  on  the  second 
floor");  until  every  farmer  has  a  "horse 
and  buggy,"  and  enjoys  all  the  amenities  of 
our  civilization  ;  until  the  last  "  child  "  under 
twenty-one  shall  be  taken  out  of  the  factory. 
Then  Production  will  begin  to  adjust  itself 
to  simply  the  daily  needs  of  the  people,  and 
to  keeping  the  fabric  of  our  wealth  in  repair. 
The  real  era  of  social  development  will  then 
have  set  in. 


LABOR    AND    WAGE    QUESTION 

WE  will  now  regard  the  saving  to  the 
people  in  another  direction  —  that  of 
the  reduction  in  retail  selling  prices,  and  the 
consequent  increase  of  purchasing  power  thus 
imparted  to  all  wages — presuming,  for  the 
time  being,  the  amount  of  wages  to  remain 
as  they  are. 

The  reduction  at  the  very  beginning  of  the 
Company  certainly  cannot  average  less  than 
io  per  cent.,  and  in  a  very  short  time  go  to 
15,  20,  and  25  per  cent.,  and  as  to  some  few 
articles  30  to  50  per  cent. ;  but  the  latter  is 
not  average.  Now  a  reduction  in  prices  of 
10  per  cent,  is  not  an  increase  of  the  pur- 
chasing power  of  wages  of  only  10  per  cent., 
but  of  n|  per  cent.  A  reduction  of  15  per 
cent,  is  an  increase  of  nearly  18  per  cent. ;  of 
20  per  cent,  is  an  increase  of  25  per  cent. ; 
of  25  per  cent,  an  increase  of  t>3z  Per  cenl- 
It  is  quite  reasonable  to  look  for  an  increase 
in  purchasing  power  of  wages  of  25  per  cent. 


UNIVERSAL   PROSPERITY    101 

in  one  to  two  years.  Now,  if  a  man  get  $12 
per  week,  what  is  the  difference  between  his 
getting  25  per  cent,  more  wages  —  namely, 
$15  per  week  —  or  the  wages  remaining  $12 
and  being  able  to  buy  25  per  cent,  greater 
quantity  of  goods  ?  In  either  case  his  wages 
are  substantially  25  per  cent.  more.  In  this 
way  will  wages  be  raised  as  a  whole  —  namely, 
by  increasing  their  purchasing  power. 

We  cannot  raise  them  by  beginning  at  the 
other  end  —  namely,  by  raising  the  amount  of 
wages  arbitrarily.  It  is  not  practicable,  on  the 
whole.  We  cannot  in  the  beginning  dictate 
the  amount  of  wages.  We  cannot,  so  far  as 
we  pay  them  in  our  own  establishments  or 
otherwise,  pay  more  than  the  prevailing  rate 
at  the  time ;  for  so  soon  as  we  do  we  but 
open  the  door  for  other  houses,  who  pay  less 
wages,  to  compete  with  us,  and  the  Company 
must  keep  beyond  competition. 

An  advance  of  wages,  to  be  real,  must 
take  place  more  or  less  uniformly  throughout 
the  country :  they  cannot  be  raised  in  one 
spot  and  not  another;  they  must  be  raised  as 
a  whole.  Again,  wages  cannot  be  raised  and 
labor  hours  shortened  to  any  comprehensive 
extent  or  substantial  degree  under  any  pres- 
ent condition  and  arrangements,  nor  so  long 
as  there  remains  a  body  of  unemployed  to 
compete  with  each  other  for  employment. 

(In  passing  it  is  imperative  to  reflect  upon 
the  monstrous  social  injustice,  noi  to  say  un- 


102    UNIVERSAL   PROSPERITY 

measured  danger,  inhering  in  the  policy  and 
teachings  of  Capitalism,  that  the  existence 
of  a  more  or  less  large  body  of  unemployed 
must  be  perpetuated.) 

All  the  assumed  advance  that  has  been 
made  in  the  matter  of  wages  and  hours  has 
been,  at  best,  but  partial,  and  is  otherwise 
rather  fictitious.  The  purchasing  power,  taken 
as  a  whole,  is  not  greater,  relative  to  pro- 
ductive cost,  nor  seldom  becomes  greater  in 
a  limited  way.  This  for  the  reason  that,  the 
expense  of  distribution  not  being  lessened, 
the  advance  in  wages  is  accompanied  by  ad- 
vance in  productive  cost  (even  if  it  does  not 
at  once  show  in  the  employers'  price-list), 
and  thus  advance  in  retail  price.  Is  it  not 
really  so,  that  all  the  heroic  struggles  of  labor 
have,  after  all,  resulted  in  no  comprehensive 
advance  at  all  in  proportion  to  the  efforts  and 
energies  expended  ?  The  relativity  of  pur- 
chasing power  to  productive  cost  is  the  sole 
test  The  proportion  of  distributive  expense 
which  has  been  eliminated  is  the  sole  ad- 
vance. 

If,  for  example,  every  employer  in  the 
country  should  suddenly  advance  wages  ioo 
per. cent,  (if  it  were  at  all  practicable),  what 
would  be  gained  ?  Would  not  prices  have  to 
be  advanced  to  equal  degree  ?  The  doubled 
wages  would  thus  buy  no  whit  more  than  it 
did  before. 

These  remarks,  that  wages  cannot  be  so 


UNIVERSAL   PROSPERITY    103 


raised,  are  to  be  taken  in  a  general  sense  and 
applying  to  labor  as  a  whole. 

As  to  particular  and  limited  application, 
as  to  equalizing  wages  —  that  is  to  say,  where 
a  particular  avocation  or  group  is  receiving 
so  low  a  rate  as  to  be  palpably  unjust  —  the 
institution  will  most  certainly  exert  itself  to 
remedy  it.  The  point  is  that  it  cannot,  just 
at  the  outset,  attempt  any  wholesale  advance 
of  the  rate  of  wages  or  the  price  of  goods  it 
buys ;  that  so  long  as  there  exists  substantial 
inimical  competition  the  institution  must  not 
pay  more  wages  than  its  competitors,  when 
by  so  doing  it  would  endanger  its  own  life. 

It  will  not  be  long,  however,  before  it  will 
have  the  power  to  do  this.  Where  the  occa- 
sion requires  and  the  lessened  cost  of  distribu- 
tion permits,  it  may  and  will  raise  the  rate  of 
wages  it  pays,  instead  of  reducing  its  selling 
price  of  the  article  or  goods  concerned.  This 
is  the  manner  in  which  it  will  equalize  wages, 
as  we  might  call  it  (at  the  points  where  un- 
just conditions  prevail),  as  distinguished  from 
advancing  wages  as  a  whole  (accomplished 
through  its  universal  increase  of  purchasing 
power).  And  this  \:  in  extremely  modest 
statement,  for  in  a  little  while  it  will  find  op- 
portunities where  it  can  both  raise  wages  and 
reduce  the  selling  price  at  the  same  time. 


xr 


MEASURES    OF    SAFETY    AND 
EVOLUTION 

IN  detailing  the  precise  formative  steps  we 
got  as  far  as  the  initial  Administration. 
Let  us  now  proceed  somewhat  farther. 

As  will  doubtless  be  perceived,  it  is  altoge- 
ther unnecessary  to  take  any  vote  of  the  peo- 
ple in  advance,  or  to  even  organize  a  Society 
of  large  dimensions.  The  initial  Society  of  one 
to  two  hundred  members  is  quite  adequate. 

I  suggest,  therefore,  that  The  United  States 
Industrial  Society  alluded  to  conduct  the  legis- 
lative government  of  the  Company  for  three 
months,  six  months,  or  one  year,  as  may  be 
deemed  exped  ent. 

In  the  meantime  other  societies  of  the  same 
name  and  purpose  in  all  parts  of  the  country 
may,  and  doubtless  will,  be  organized,  and 
arrangements  will  soon  be  had  to  encourage 
such.  At  the  end  of  not  more  than,  say, 
one  year  it  should  be  provided  that  all  these 
societies  be  federated,  and  that  each  local 
society  or  district  group  of  societies  elect  a 
104 


UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY    105 

representative,  the  representatives  so  elected 
to  constitute  the  "Industrial  Congress,"  which 
shall  then  take  over  the  legislative  government 
of  the  Company  and  the  entire  Institution, 
standing  in  the  same  relation  to  this  industrial 
institution  as  the  House  of  Representatives 
does  to  the  country  politically.  Every  improve- 
ment possible  should  of  course  be  embodied. 

If  it  is  thought  necessary,  a  Constitutional 
Convention  may  first  be  had,  but  perhaps  the 
first  Industrial  Congress  can  serve  just  as  well. 
It  is  a  question  whether  it  will  not  be  wisest  to 
avoid  anything  like  a  long  constitution,  which 
so  often  is  only  a  stupid  barrier  to  progress. 
If  the  people  want  to  vote,  or  do  vote,  to  do 
or  undo  a  given  thing,  every  facility  should 
be  open  to  that  end.  The  people  are  superior 
to  a  constitution.  So,  if  a  constitution  is  had, 
it  should  be  expressly  such  that  it  is  always 
subordinate  to  any  properly  expressed  will  of 
the  people,  and,  in  fact,  provide  for  such  an 
expression  at  any  time  upon  any  subject. 

What  may  be  good  to-day  may  no  longer  be 
good  to-morrow  ;  then  away  with  it  instantly. 
Witness  the  deplorable  political  handicaps  we 
suffer  from.  A  long  time  ago,  when  every- 
thing was  different  from  to-day,  and  none  of 
the  conditions  of  to-day  could  be  foreseen, 
we  made  certain  political  shackles,  locked 
them,  and  threw  the  key  away.  Whatever  we 
make  we  should  be  able  to  unmake.  What- 
ever shackles  we  now  make,  let  us  be  sure  to 


io6    UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY 


retain  the  key,  so  that  as  soon  as  they  are  no 
longer  adapted  we  can  instantly  unlock  them 
and  substitute  others.  Let  us  so  frame  our 
provisions  that,  they  will  embody  constant  flex- 
ibility, developing  and  adapting  themselves 
to  changing  needs  and  conditions  so  soon  as 
change  takes  place,  so  that  the  generations  to 
come  will  not  be  locked  in,  as  our  forefathers 
have  locked  us  in,  unwittingly.  Our  political 
shortcomings,  our  industrial  distortion,  and 
the  existing  peril  with  which  our  Republic  is 
confronted  would  largely  have  been  avoided 
had  we  in  force  the  Initiative,  Referendum, 
and  Proportional  Representation,  constituting 
the  safeguard  of  Liberty,  the  key  alluded  to. 

It  is  understood  that  the  Institution  embody 
the  principle  of  performing  its  service  at  cost. 
In  the  beginning,  of  course,  it  shall  always 
make  prices  sufficient,  so  that  the  balance  will 
surely  fall  on  the  safe  side,  plus  the  necessary 
margin  or  accumulation  to  furnish  "  sinews  " 
for  the  most  rapid  expansion  of  the  Institu- 
tion consistent  with  safety  and  proper  organ- 
ization. Whenever  the  reserve  is  seen  to  ex- 
ceed requisite  purposes  it  will  be  reduced  by 
wages  being  advanced,  or  hours  of  labor 
shortened,  or  prices  reduced. 

The  one  all-important  provision  which  must 
be  made  is  that  the  Institution  embody  irrevo- 
cably the  principle  of  what  may  be  termed 

"absence  of  ownership." 


UNIVERSAL   PROSPERITY    107 

The  Company  and  all  its  wealth  shall  not 
be  or  ever  become  the  property  of  any  per- 
son or  persons,  or  of  any  group,  no  matter 
how  large.  It  shall  be  held  in  trust  and  ad- 
ministered in  trust  for  no  other  ends,  and  in 
no  other  manner,  than  herein  in  general  out- 
lined. It  shall  be  perpetual,  and  no  power 
to  sell  or  to  convey  the  business  or  good- will, 
in  whole  or  in  any  substantial  part,  shall  be 
held  or  holdable  by  its  administrators,  trus- 
tees, or  any  one. 

The  United  States  Industrial  Society,  and 
afterward  the  Industrial  Congress,  shall  be 
bound  to  this  provision.  They  are  the  trus- 
tees, and  the  Administration  administers  for 
the  trustees.  The  Administration,  or  any 
properly  elected  and  endowed  body  of  five, 
seven,  or  more  persons,  may  be  made  the 
practical  trustees,  subject  to  the  higher  trust 
of  the  Industrial  Congress.  Provided,  how- 
ever, that  when  at  any  time  the  people  of  the 
United  States  express  by  affirmative  majority 
vote  —  the  vote  of  the  whole  people,  including 
all  men  and  women  of  the  age  of  twenty-one 
years  and  over,  and  excluding  foreigners  not 
yet  naturalized  at  the  time  —  the  desire  that 
the  Institution  shall  become  theirs  in  common 
practically  (which  it  already  is  virtually),  and 
be  administered  by  the  Federal  Government ; 
and  provided  further  that  a  three-fourths  af- 
firmative vote  of  the  constituted  voters  of 
The  United  States  Industrial  Society  so  con- 


io8    UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY 

sent,  this  Institution  shall  then  be  conveyed  to 
the  Federal  Government  without  compensa- 
tion, and  for  the  sole  agreed  purpose  on  the 
Government's  part  to  continue  the  Institu- 
tion in  the  same  general  manner  and  for  the 
same  general  ends  it  has  hitherto  been  con- 
ducted. This  vote  may  be  taken  whenever  it 
is  desired,  and  repeated  any  number  of  times 
until  it  carries. 

These  further  requirements  are  essential : 
the  Society,  and  in  turn  the  Industrial  Con- 
gress, shall  positively  embody  in  their  laws  the 
principles  of  the  Initiative,  the  Referendum, 
the  Imperative  Mandate,  Proportional  Repre- 
sentation—  so  far  as  they  can  apply  —  Woman 
Suffrage,  and  the  best  form  of  Civil  Service 
regulation. 

It  shall  be  a  fundamental  principle  to  pro- 
vide for  the  fullest  and  freest  expression  of 
the  members  or  people  upon  any  subject, 
question,  law,  measure,  or  constitutional  pro- 
vision whatever,  old  or  new,  at  any  time. 

Following  is  given,  by  way  of  suggestion,  a 

"  DEFINITION    OF    MEMBERSHIP." 

This  Institution  for  industrial  purposes  is  com- 
posed of  two  divisions,  distinguished  as 

The  United  States  Industrial  Society 

and 

The  United  States  Industrial  Company. 

There  are  thus  two  classes  of  membership  — 
"  political  "  and  "  participating." 


UNIVERSAL  PROSPERITY    109 

Political  Membership  is  membership  in  the  So- 
ciety. It  bestows  the  franchise  or  right  to  vote 
equally  upon  all  its  members.  The  members  of 
the  Society  control,  by  means  of  the  ballot  and 
the  Industrial  Congress,  the  affairs  and  conduct 
of  the  "  Company." 

The  United  States  Industrial  Company  is  the 
name  applied  to  the  executive  or  administrative 
division.  It  performs  the  practical  work  of  Dis- 
tribution and  Production.  The  Company  exists 
for  the  mutual  exchange,  through  its  organiza- 
tion, of  products  and  services  between  "  partici- 
pating" members,  to  their  mutual  benefit,  and 
such  other  purposes  as  may  be  determined  upon 
from  time  to  time. 

Participating  Membership  has  reference  to  the 
transactions  of  the  "  Company  "  as  distinguished 
from  those  of  the  "  Society."  It  is  conferred  by 
Industrial  Certificates,  varies  in  degree  or  extent, 
is  transferable,  but  carries  with  it  no  vote.  It 
bestows  upon  the  participating  member  the  right 
to  the  service  and  benefits  of  the  "  Company" 
to  the  extent  of  his  certificates.  The  number  or 
amount  of  such  certificates  he  may  hold  is  not 
limited.  The  certificates  are  transferable  with- 
out limit  or  condition. 

The  participating  member  ceases  membership 
when  he  transfers  his  certificates,  thus  transfer- 
ring his  membership  to  the  transferee  —  or  so 
much  of  it  as  he  transfers  ;  and  again  becomes  a 
member  when  he  again  holds  a  certificate. 

A  participating  member  is  thus  a  member  of  the 
"  Company  "  ;  and  the  Company,  thus  composed 
of  many  members  mutually  benefited  by  econom- 
ical exchange  with  one  another,  is  practically  a 
mutual  and  beneficial  association. 

The  above  may  be  placed  upon  the  back 
of  the  Certificate. 


XII 
CONCLUSION 

IT  is  not  assumed  that  there  will  be  no  oc- 
casional hitch  or  obstacle  to  the  progress 
of  this  enterprise,  but  surely  the  most  serious 
that  can  reasonably  be  devised  is  insufficient 
to  argue  against  putting  this  project  into  im- 
mediate operation. 

Monopolies  and  trusts  exist  who  may  fool- 
ishly attempt  to  hamper  us.  These,  together 
with  Capitalism,  may  plot  our  overthrow  and 
destruction  ;  but  Capitalism  can  only,  at  most, 
fret  us  for  a  time,  and  finally  cause  its  own 
overthrow  all  the  sooner.  Any  act,  either 
secret  or  open,  upon  its  part  against  us  will 
simply  serve  to  deprive  it  of  the  consideration 
it  would  otherwise  receive  at  the  hands  of  the 
general  public.  It  is  not  the  purpose  of  this 
movement  to  injure  or  destroy  any  individual 
or  object,  but  to  deal  justly  with  each,  to  the 
end  that  the  transition  from  this  to  a  better 
state  shall  proceed  gradually,  smoothly,  and 
without  unhappiness  to  any  one.     It  is  to 


UNIVERSAL   PROSPERITY    in 


build  a  new  and  better  domicile  as  fast  as  it 
eliminates  the  old. 

Hostility  may  be  shown,  also,  by  the  rail- 
road, express,  telegraph,  telephone,  and  such 
large  corporations,  in  interfering  with  or  se- 
cretly delaying  our  operations,  or  in  other 
ways  inflicting  annoyance.  As  alluded  to 
above,  such  can  only  revert  upon  themselves 
with  redoubled  injury. 

Any  opposition  or  persecution  can  only 
serve  to  strengthen  our  position  in  the  end 
—  in  fact,  at  once. 

Fully  prepared  in  my  mind  to  admit  all 
sorts  of  hostile  possibilities,  I  nevertheless  pre- 
fer to  regard  them  largely  improbable.  It  is 
more  likely  that  judgment  and  manhood  will 
dictate  cooperation  with  and  in  the  operations 
of  the  Company,  rather  than  hostility  and 
obstruction.  The  humblest  and  the  wisest, 
the  poorest  and  the  richest,  will  alike  find 
only  happiness  and  comfort  in  the  new  order, 
if  they  wish  it  so.  The  object  of  all  alike  is 
in  the  things  which  money  will  buy,  and  the 
surcease  from  misery  which  it  is  supposed  to 
give,  rather  than  in  money  per  se.  And  if 
now  we  can  obtain  these  things  and  happi- 
ness in  fuller  and  truer  measure  than  money 
ever  could  buy,  we  doubtless  will  not  reject 
it  because,  forsooth,  our  fellow-men,  too,  are 
happy  at  nobody's  expense. 

The  potentialities  inherent  in  the  institution 
are  vast,  and  all  for  good.     With  industrial 


ii2     UNIVERSAL   PROSPERITY 


order  and  prosperity  made  constant  and  per- 
manent the  impetus  given  to  all  the  higher 
avocations  and  pursuits  of  life  will  be  very 
great.  It  will  stimulate  and  vastly  assist  all 
other  good  reforms  that  have  been  proposed  ; 
it  causes  them  to  be  studied  and  considered, 
which  is  the  best  thing  that  can  happen ;  it 
virtually  becomes  the  vehicle  or  indirect  in- 
strument of  their  initiation.  While  a  purely 
industrial  institution  per  se,  it  is  nevertheless 
a  social  movement  of  the  largest  proportions 
and  highest  good.  Its  influence  upon  our 
political  affairs  alone  will  be  like  the  sunshine 
upon  fog.  Hundreds  of  knotty  and  abstruse 
questions  will  be  solved  by  their  entire  elimi- 
nation. The  existence  and  operations  of  this 
institution  will  remove  the  political  deadlock, 
and  will  be  an  object-lesson  pointing  out  the 
wisdom  of  measures  it  is  now  impossible  for 
the  people  to  properly  appreciate,  the  truth 
being  so  distorted  and  covered  up  by  per- 
sonal bias  and  private  and  corporate  interests. 
The  vast  number  of  laws  and  three  fourths 
the  expense  of  the  Government,  together  with 
the  enormity  of  political  corruption,  are  due 
to  the  present  abominable  commercial  sys- 
tem. How  little  time  and  expense  it  requires, 
for  example,  to  make  the  laws  or  provide 
the  legislation  for  the  postal  service  !  How 
easily  probable  it  is  that  this  would  be  a  hun- 
dredfold greater  if  the  postal  service  were  in 


UNIVERSAL   PROSPERITY    113 


private  hands  for  private  profit !  The  same 
relativity  will  hold  good  as  between  the  new 
industrial  order  and  the  present  commercial 
system.  The  cost  of  government  (federal, 
State,  and  municipal),  which  is  now  $900,- 
000,000  annually,  can  be  reduced  by  one 
fourth  to  one  half  if  the  people  will  have  it 
so,  and  the  saving  applied  to  better  purpose. 
The  great  debt  of  the  nation,  which  has  al- 
ready been  more  than  paid  in  interest,  will 
be  speedily  paid  off  and  looked  upon  as  a 
nightmare  of  the  past. 

Leading  out  from  Industrial,  through  Politi- 
cal, and  into  Social  affairs,  this  movement  will 
certainly  cause  the  solution  of  all  the  present 
evils  we  are  suffering  under.  And  what  will 
do  that  for  America  will  do  it  for  the  civilized 
world. 

As  we  set  our  minds  to  work  perceiving 
the  political  influence  of  this  institution,  we 
can  allow  for  a  great  deal  and  still  believe 
with  Tennyson : 


'  Yet  I  doubt  not  thro'  the  ages  one  increasing  pur- 
pose runs, 
And  the  thoughts  of  men  are  widened  with  the  pro- 
cess of  the  suns." 


And  if  we  believe  that,  isn't  it  reasonable  to 
believe  in  a  near  realization  of  the  prophecy 
contained  in  these  words  of  his : 


ii4    UNIVERSAL   PROSPERITY 

"  Till  the  war-drum  throbb'd  no  longer,  and  the 
battle-flags  were  furl'd 

In  the  Parliament  of  man,  the  Federation  of  the 
world. 

There  the  common  sense  of  most  shall  hold  a  fretful 
realm  in  awe, 

And  the  kindly  earth  shall  slumber,  lapt  in  uni- 
versal Law"? 

"  Industrial  order"  is  the  open  sesame  to 
the  "  Parliament  of  man." 


NOTHING 
IS    EVER    SETTLED 

UNTIL 
SETTLED    RIGHT. 


POSTSCRIPT 

BY   THE    AUTHOR 

IN  consequence  of  the  unmerited  disappro- 
bation which  is  oftentimes  hastily  visited 
upon  a  person  or  idea  merely  because  of  the 
?iame  Socialism,  Populism,  Anarchism,  Nation- 
alism, etc.,  in  utter  disregard  of  the  substance 
and  merit  of  the  idea  itself,  I  hope  the  reader 
will  take  heed  and  concern  himself  with  the 
merit  of  the  idea  herein. 

The  proposition  herein  issues  from  no  par- 
ticular social  or  political  ism,  but  even  if  it 
did  its  merit  would  depend  entirely  upon  its 
substance  and  not  upon  a  name.  We  stultify 
ourselves  and  disprove  our  claims  to  being 
an  "intelligent"  people  by  our  prejudice  and 
indifference  to  anything  that  happens  to  be  a 
different  idea  or  bear  a  different  name  from 
that  in  which  we  have  been  cradled.  As  if 
it  were  dangerous  to  follow  truth  because  of 
a  name ;  as  if  right  by  any  name  weren't  the 
same  right  !  Change  the  name,  if  need  be, 
but  hold  to  the  substance. 


S 


n6    UNIVERSAL   PROSPERITY 


Let  no  one  imagine  that  this  plan  pre- 
tends to  be  perfect  in  every  detail,  or  that 
its  promoters  propose  to  discountenance  any 
improvement  that  may  from  time  to  time  be 
discovered.  It  should  be  endeavored  to  make 
this  Industrial  Institution  reflect  the  universal 
sentiment  of  the  people,  whatever  that  may 
be,  and  not  to  impose  upon  them  something 
they  do  not  want  or  are  not  ripe  for — the 
will  of  the  people,  freed  from  all  extraneous 
or  artificial  restrictions,  burdens,  or  obstacles ; 
the  free  will  of  a  "  free  "  people. 

The  people  can  be  trusted. 

The  Society  will  be  pleased  to  receive  the 
brief  comments  of  every  reader,  in  order  to 
learn  what  the  general  sentiment  is  with  re- 
gard to  the  "plan";  especially  whether  the 
reader  is  in  favor  of  or  opposed  to  it.  I  hope 
every  reader  will,  therefore,  take  occasion  to 
write  to  them.  In  such  event  be  particular 
to  write  "  XXX  "  in  the  lower  left  corner  of 
envelope,  thus: 


The  United  States  Industrial  Society, 
CINCINNATI, 

Ohio. 
XXX 


UNIVERSAL   PROSPERITY    117 


Should  any  one  who  thinks  he  can  be  of 
especial  service  in  promoting  this  institution 
desire  to  communicate  with  me  individually 
I  shall  be  glad  to  have  him  or  her  do  so. 
Edward  Wenning. 

Cincinnati,  Ohio. 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  UNITED  STATES 
INDUSTRIAL  SOCIETY 

To  our  Countrymen: 

It  is  an  axiom  that  "  where  there's  a  will 
there's  a  way."  Reversely,  where  there's  no 
will  there's  no  way.  We  feel  that  this  applies 
with  peculiar  force  to  the  inauguration  of  this 
plan,  and  that,  given  the  will,  a  way  can  easily 
be  found. 

It  might  be  fairly  said  that  a  great  deal  of 
the  evil  condition  under  which  we  now  suffer 
could  have  been  removed  ere  this  had  the 
will  of  the  people  been  less  dormant  and  their 
perceptions  of  the  logic  of  events  more  acute. 
The  will  is  present,  but  it  has  not  been  posi- 
tive enough.  Can  it  be  hoped  that  the  pre- 
liminary work  herein  proposed  will  elicit  the 
active  support  of  the  people? 

It  appears  to  us  that  this  plan  is  surpass- 
ingly meritorious.  While  it  conflicts  with  no 
dictum  of  justice,  and  is  almost  illimitable  in 
its  potentiality  for  good,  it  yet  is  so  remark- 
ably simple  and  practicable  at  the  same  time 
as  to  make  us  wonder  why  it  was  not  thought 
118 


UNIVERSAL   PROSPERITY    119 


of  before.  True,  some  propositions  have  been 
made  which  are  similar  to  this  in  part,  or 
which  appear  somewhat  like  it  on  the  surface ; 
but  they  lack  more  or  less  of  the  essentials 
to  a  complete  and  tranquil  solution  which  the 
present  plan  embodies. 

The  best  plan  in  the  world  may  fail,  how- 
ever, if  not  properly  supported  or  conducted  ; 
and  even  the  practical  inauguration  of  this 
one  may  be  much  delayed  if  our  people,  as 
individuals,  do  not  lend  it  the  aid  necessary 
to  carry  out  the  preliminaries  which  it  is  the 
object  of  this  Society  to  conduct,  or  if  they 
ignorantly  heed  the  pharisaical  and  specious 
objections  which  are  sure  to  be  made. 

We  therefore  ask  each  reader  to  render  us 
all  the  assistance  in  his  or  her  power  to  carry 
out  our  purposes — first,  by  causing  the  utmost 
sale  of  this  book  through  recommending  it 
wherever  and  whenever  possible,  and,  second, 
by  contributing  to  our  treasury  such  funds  as 
can  be  afforded. 

Before  the  Proclamation  (relating  to  the 
Company)  suggested  in  the  plan  can  be  made 
it  is  necessary  that  a  large  circulation  of  the 
book  be  first  had,  and  a  large  amount  of 
educational  and  other  work  on  the  part  of 
the  Society  be  done.  To  this  end  it  is  sug- 
gested that  such  persons  as  can  agreeably  do 
so  arrange  to  buy  the  book  in  quantities,  and 
sell  it  among  friends  and  acquaintances  or  from 
house  to  house  in  their  respective  localities. 


2o    UNIVERSAL   PROSPERITY 


A  measure  which  we  feel  0/  special  im- 
portance is  that  we  establish  an  office  —  Pro- 
motion Office  —  and  employ  a  well-qualified 
person  to  conduct  the  same.  The  correspon- 
dence that  would  ensue  in  the  aggressive  prose- 
cution of  our  work  would  make  this  necessary. 
This  officer  would  also  then  push  the  sale  of 
the  book  and  the  dissemination  of  the  idea  it 
embodies  in  every  possible  way. 

In  order  to  assist  us  in  doing  this — the  cost 
being  entirely  beyond  the  capacity  of  the  ac- 
tive membership  of  the  initial  Society — we 
have  provided  a  separate  class  of  members, 
to  be  known  as  "  contributory "  members, 
who  contribute  monthly  or  periodically  such 
sums  as  they  may  agree  or  see  fit.  Any  per- 
son is  therefore  at  liberty  to  become  such  a 
member  by  writing  to  the  address  below,  in- 
closing a  remittance  and  stating  that  he  or 
she  will  remit  25  cents,  or  50  cents,  or  $1,  or 
more,  per  month.  Those  desiring  to  contrib- 
ute 25  to  50  cents  may  remit  $1  every  four 
-or  two  months  for  convenience.  The  funds 
so  contributed  will  be  under  the  control  of 
this  Society,  and  will  be  used  to  carry  out  its 
objects  and  conduct  the  necessary  propaganda. 

If  there  should  result  thus  a  membership  of 
several  thousand,  contributing  25  cents  to  $1 
per  month  for,  say,  a  year  or  more,  it  will  cer- 
tainly be  the  means  of  a  speedy  inauguration 
of  the  "  Company."  The  Promotion  Office 
could    then    do    a   splendid    work,   and    the 


UNIVERSAL    PROSPERITY    121 


money  spent  would  be  a  small  price  for  the 
measureless  benefit  that  will  result  and  the 
time  saved  in  arriving  at  the  establishment 
of  the  "  Company." 

Doubtless  the  proposed  "  Industrial  Con- 
gress "  would  order  these  contributions  re- 
funded, with  certificates,  in  due  time ;  but, 
of  course,  we  cannot  guarantee  this. 

We  ask  the  hearty  support  of  all  who  favor 
the  proposition  of  the  book,  and  their  contri- 
butions by  means  of  contributory  membership. 

Address : 

The  U.  S.  Industral  Society, 
Cincinnati, 

Ohio. 

Office:  No.  53  West  Ninth  St. 


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